America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.

Originally premiered in Britain at the National Theatre, London, where it won the Evening Standard Best Play Award, Tony Kushner's Angels in America went on to win two Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

This volume contains both Part One: Millennium Approaches and Part Two: Perestroika, plus 45 pages of bonus material including a new introduction by the playwright, a full production history, deleted scenes, and notes on staging. It was published alongside a new production in 2017 at the National Theatre, London, directed by Marianne Elliott and starring Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle and Russell Tovey.

About the Author
Tony Kushner is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. Tony Kushner's other plays include A Bright Room Called Day; Hydriotaphia, or The Death of Dr. Brown; The Illusion, adapted from the play by Pierre Corneille; Slavs!; Homebody/Kabul; Caroline, or Change, a musical with composer Jeanine Tesori; The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures; and The Visit, adapted from the play by Friedrich Durrenmatt. His translations include S. Y. Ansky's The Dybbuk; Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Sezuan and Mother Courage and Her Children; and the libretto for Hans Krasa and Adolf Hoffmeister's Brundibar, a children's opera for which he wrote a curtain-raiser, But the Giraffe! He wrote the screenplays for Mike Nichols's film of Angels in America and for Steven Spielberg's Munich and Lincoln. His books include The Art of Maurice Sendak: 1980 to the Present; Brundibar, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak; and Wrestling with Zion: Progressive Jewish-American Responses to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, co-edited with Alisa Solomon. Among many honours, Kushner is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, three Obie Awards, two Evening Standard Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy Award, two Oscar nominations, and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2012, he was awarded a National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Reviews

'The finest drama of our time, speaking to us of an entire era of life and death as no other play within memory. In its sweep and imagination, it defines the collapse of a moral universe during the Reagan years in an unforgettable way, transcending its specific time in the richness of its portrait of an America Lost, perhaps to be regained... It's a pretty funny play, too. How we still need it! It ranks as nothing less than one of the greatest plays of the twentieth century'

* New York Observer *

'A true theatrical epic... Kushner's writing dazzles. Its sheer imaginative reach can be exhilarating and it's studded with devilish humour. Instead of appearing dated, it seems pointedly topical in its scrutiny of intolerance, immigration, religious values and national ideals'

* Evening Standard *

'A start-to-finish sensation... the core themes, about the price paid for denial, and the cost of change and acceptance, the end-times sense of foreboding many feel about the state of the planet too, still pulse with urgency; the emotions sear afresh'

* Telegraph *

'The scope and vision are enough to make you gasp and cheer... seeing it now is like a vigorously entertaining history lesson. It is a reminder of just how terrifying and tragic the times were, of all the people who died terribly and needlessly, but also a vibrant hymn to the ragged soul of humanity itself, in all its messy, complicated imperfection... Kushner's achievement is to make his characters so compelling that the massive themes he pins around them - the relationship between man and God, the power of the numinous, the root of good and moral in a shifting, dangerous world, the role of progress and change - sit comfortably alongside the unfolding of their stories'

* WhatsOnStage *

'Epic in every conceivable sense of the word... though valuable as an evocative history play, Kushner's work is still a powerful call to arms. The challenges of progress, immigration and integration, prejudice, global warming, and religious and national identity are still urgent topics, here often brilliantly and waspishly articulated... a monumental achievement'

* Broadway World *

'Big on ideas, ambition and scope... it liberatingly plays with form: conventional scenes of domestic realism defiantly throw off those shackles with abandon to enter hallucinatory realms of fantasy, mystery and mysticism... where once it might have been stating radical positions, Angels in America now plays like a raw, truthful documentary of where we've come from, and serves as a necessary reminder of those bleak times before AIDS became a treatable disease'

* The Stage *

'Both a document of the Aids crisis and an enduringly relevant commentary on US politics... what really hits one is the expansiveness of Kushner's imagination and the rich opportunities he creates for actors'

* Guardian *

'Probably the great American play of the late 20th century'

* Time Out *

'One of the greatest achievements in American theatre during the twentieth century... epic in every sense of the word... a once-in-a-lifetime experience that should not be missed'

* British Theatre Guide *

'An astonishing piece of theatre, madly inventive and driven by deep compassion... the portrait of a fractured America feels no less resonant today; the inquiry into where true progress lies feels no less urgent... the play's themes emerge through a kaleidoscope of richly varied characters, all wrestling with their own angels and demons'

* Financial Times *

'This revival confirms its place in the pantheon of dramas that stretch toward the heavens. In the case of Angels in America, the sky is not the limit, and no work of theater since has quite matched its reach... [has] a boundless imagination and a moral rage that roam, at length and at large, where few playwrights have dared to tread... the climate of fear and anger Mr. Kushner summoned feels, if anything, even more pervasive today than it did when Angels first opened... Mr. Kushner's words [have] a Shavian wit and ferocity rooted in the most visceral of feelings... the heroes of Angels are human. This still-singular play fans their anger, confusion and hopefulness into a flame of genuine divinity'

* New York Times *


Awards
Winner of Best New Play, Critics' Circle Awards 1992 and Best Play, Evening Standard Awards 1992 and Best Play, Tony Awards 1993/94 and Pulitzer Prize for Drama 1993.



Book Information
ISBN 9781848426313
Author Tony Kushner
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint Nick Hern Books
Publisher Nick Hern Books