angels-in-america

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Scene 1 ACT ONE: Bad News October-November 1985 The last days of October. Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz alone onstage with a small coffin. It is a rough pine box with two wooden pegs, one at the foot and one at the head, holding the lid in place. A prayer shawl embroidered with a Star of David is draped over the lid, and by the head a yarzheit candle is burning. RABBI ISIDOR CHEMELWITZ (He speaks sonorously, with a heavy Eastern European accent, unapologetically consulting a sheet of notes for the family names): Hello and good morning. I am Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz of the Bronx Home for Aged Hebrews. We are here this morning to pay respects at the passing of Sarah Ironson, devoted wife of Benjamin Ironson, also deceased, loving and caring mother of her sons Morris, Abraham, and Samuel, and her daughters Esther and Rachel; beloved grandmother of Max, Mark, Louis, Lisa, Maria . . . uh . . . Lesley, Angela, Doris, 15
ANGELS IN AMERICA 16 Luke and Eric. (Looks more closely at paper) Eric? This is a Jewish name? (Shrugs) Eric. A large and loving family. We assemble that we may mourn collectively this good and righteous woman. (He looks at the coffin) This woman. I did not know this woman. I cannot accurately describe her attributes, nor do justice to her dimensions. She was. . . . Well, in the Bronx Home of Aged Hebrews are many like this, the old, and to many I speak but not to be frank with this one. She preferred silence. So I do not know her and yet I know her. She was . . . (He touches the coffin) . . . not a person but a whole kind of person, the ones who crossed the ocean, who brought with us to America the villages of Russia and Lithuania—and how we strug- gled, and how we fought, for the family, for the Jewish home, so that you would not grow up here, in this strange place, in the melting pot where nothing melted. Descen- dants of this immigrant woman, you do not grow up in America, you and your children and their children with the goyische names. You do not live in America. No such place exists. Your clay is the clay of some Litvak shtetl, your air the air of the steppes—because she carried the old world on her back across the ocean, in a boat, and she put it down on Grand Concourse Avenue, or in Flatbush, and she worked that earth into your bones, and you pass it to your children, this ancient, ancient culture and home. (Little pause) You can never make that crossing that she made, for such Great Voyages in this world do not any more exist. But every day of your lives the miles that voyage between
Page 3 and 4: Praise for Millennium Approaches "D
Page 6 and 7: ANGELS in AMERICA A Gay Fantasia on
Page 8: CONTENTS Part One: Millennium Appro
Page 12 and 13: The actors, directors and designers
Page 14 and 15: The first production of Angels in A
Page 16 and 17: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I've been working o
Page 18 and 19: THE CHARACTERS ROY M. COHN, a succe
Page 20 and 21: PLAYWRIGHT'S NOTES A DISCLAIMER: Ro
Page 24 and 25: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES that place an
Page 26 and 27: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES ROY: Fabulous
Page 28 and 29: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES JOE: I'm sorr
Page 30 and 31: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES safety for li
Page 32 and 33: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES JOE: Nothing
Page 34 and 35: LOUIS: Knew what? (Pause.) MILLENNI
Page 36 and 37: HARPER: Washington? JOE: It's an in
Page 38 and 39: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES RABBI ISIDOR
Page 40 and 41: HARPER: NO. JOE: Well. . . . Yes yo
Page 42 and 43: LOUIS : Yeah, yeah, well, that's sw
Page 44 and 45: Fuck this shit. Fuck this shit. MIL
Page 46 and 47: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES PRIOR: It's s
Page 48 and 49: PRIOR (Looking up, not seeing anyon
Page 50 and 51: HARPER: Stick to the subject. MILLE
Page 52 and 53: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES some unsatisf
Page 54 and 55: (Pause.) HARPER: I'm going to have
Page 56 and 57: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES Like Kaposi's
Page 58 and 59: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES ROY: So say i
Page 60 and 61: Scene 1 ACT TWO: In Vitro December
Page 62 and 63: Scene 2 MILLENNIUM APPROACHES Same
Page 64 and 65: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES EMILY: Anypla
Page 66 and 67: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES JOE: The pill
Page 68 and 69: MAN: I want to. LOUIS : Yeah? MAN:
Page 70 and 71: LOUIS: Forget it, then. (He starts
Page 72 and 73:
Scene 5 MILLENNIUM APPROACHES Three
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BELIZE: My jaw aches at the memory.
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Scene 6 MILLENNIUM APPROACHES The s
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES MARTIN (Endin
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES Brahmin lawye
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES Joe, I'm gonn
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JOE: Whose? MILLENNIUM APPROACHES L
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES by one and th
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES JOE: Actually
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES JOE: Please l
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES editorial "yo
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JOE (Calling): Harper? PRIOR: I hur
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MILLENNIUM APPROACHES SISTER ELLA C
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ANGELS IN AMERICA PRIOR 1: You're a
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ANGELS IN AMERICA We two come to st
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ANGELS IN AMERICA begin to know wha
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: I . . . L
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ANGELS IN AMERICA LOUIS: I just thi
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ANGELS IN AMERICA LOUIS: I was neve
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ANGELS IN AMERICA or. ... So I gues
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Belize. Tell him
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ANGELS IN AMERICA It'll be great. I
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (The Woman nods.)
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Scene 5 Same day.
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ANGELS IN AMERICA magazine. She isn
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Then again, with
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ETHEL ROSENBERG:
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ANGELS IN AMERICA PRIOR 2: Now open
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Pause.) LOUIS: Y
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ANGELS IN AMERICA I'm . . . so . .
Page 134:
ANGELS in AMERICA Part Two: P EREST
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THE ANGEL Ellen McLaughlin PRIOR WA
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ROY COHN Ron Leibman LOUIS IRONSON
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Gordon Davidson has been the most o
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THE CHARACTERS THE ANGEL, four divi
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THE ANGEL ASIATICA, played by the a
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y the Angel's traumatic entry at th
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Intermissions should be taken after
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Scene 1 ACT ONE: Spooj January 1986
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PERESTROIKA of Millennium Approache
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PERESTROIKA HARPER: Can I come with
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PRIOR: OH! Oh. PERESTROIKA (He look
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PRIOR AND BELIZE: Peace on earth an
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PERESTROIKA ROY (Getting nervous ab
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PERESTROIKA ROY: I got some kind of
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BELIZE: Consider it solidarity. One
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We can cap everything that leaks in
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LOUIS: Mmm. Iron. Clay. PERESTROIKA
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ANGELS IN AMERICA came into the wor
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ANGEL: Greetings,
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Angel coughs a li
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ANGEL: The Pulse,
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ANGEL: YOU Think.
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: Listen to
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ANGEL: ANGEL: (Sh
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ANGELS IN AMERICA PRIOR: Maybe I am
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (They put the dre
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (She vanishes as
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ROY: Suck my dick
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: There's a
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ANGELS IN AMERICA The worst thing a
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ANGELS IN AMERICA PRIOR: No, I... H
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ANGELS IN AMERICA CALEB: Will there
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Joe kisses Louis
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ANGELS IN AMERICA HARPER (Overlappi
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (The Mormon Mothe
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ANGELS IN AMERICA JOE: YOU believe
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ANGELS IN AMERICA LOUIS: I miss him
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: Time to t
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Roy laughs softl
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ANGELS IN AMERICA HARPER (Joining i
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Stygian. How trag
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ANGELS IN AMERICA LOUIS: But you do
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ANGELS IN AMERICA JOE: With a man.
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE (To Joe):
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ANGELS IN AMERICA ROY: Sssshhh. Fir
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: SACRED He
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ANGELS IN AMERICA LOUIS (Looking):
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Louis shakes Ms
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ANGELS IN AMERICA If I could manage
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Take me to St. Vi
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Scene 6 Night. Pr
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ANGELS IN AMERICA HANNAH (A nod, th
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Scene 7 That nigh
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ANGELS IN AMERICA JOE: I'm having a
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ANGELS IN AMERICA They didn't chang
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ANGELS IN AMERICA (Louis falls to t
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ANGELS IN AMERICA Rosenberg's Hatre
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Scene 1 ACT FIVE: Heaven, I'm in He
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PERESTROIKA PRIOR: I... will not le
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PERESTROIKA HARPER: She was wanderi
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PERESTROIKA BELIZE: Stop whining. W
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PERESTROIKA LOUIS: B'olmo deevro ch
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PERESTROIKA ROY: Show me a little o
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(The static intensifies.) ASIATICA:
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PERESTROIKA AUSTRALIA: It is a Conu
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AUSTRALIA: Oh We have tried. We suf
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PERESTROIKA body, more sores than s
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PERESTROIKA Penuel, Peniel, Ja'akov
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PERESTROIKA (Brief tense pause; Pri
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HARPER (Quietly): Did that hurt? (J
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PERESTROIKA HARPER: Night flight to
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ANGELS IN AMERICA PRIOR (To audienc
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ANGELS IN AMERICA BELIZE: But the W
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With a Little Help from My Friends
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AFTERWORD wrote a series of remarka
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AFTERWORD More pessimistic than I,
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AFTERWORD anxious my analyst sugges
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1991 National Arts Club's Joseph Ke
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