Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

On the same night, Mr. Lies (played by Belize) sits in Harper’s Antarctica and plays the oboe, which he identifies as the official instrument of the International Order of Travel Agents because it sounds like a migratory bird. Harper enters, now dressed as she was when she ran from home, hauling a small tree behind her. No longer flawless, she is dirty and frazzled. Harper exclaims that she used her teeth to chew through the tree because she is starving. Mr. Lies mentions that there are no pine trees in Antarctica. Joe enters, and Mr. Lies gestures that he is the Inuit, although he is wearing the suit from his last scene in the park with Louis. Harper complains that she wanted an actual Inuit. Joe greets her and says that although he had searched for her, he stopped, admitting, “I guess I’m having an adventure” (150). Harper begs him to take her home, but he tells her that he does not want her to see what he’s doing. She curses him, and he leaves. As Mr. Lies plays the oboe, he calls the music “[b]lues for the death of heaven” (151), which elicits a mournful cry from Harper. He tells her that she destroyed the fantasy by trying to imagine too much. Harper admits that she hasn’t left Brooklyn, and the tree came from Prospect Park. There is a flash of police lights, and Mr. Lies disappears. Resigned, Harper puts her hands up.

Hannah, who has finally reached Joe and Harper’s apartment, drags her luggage inside as the phone starts ringing. She answers wearily but snaps to alertness as she responds to the news that Harper has been found. She is baffled to learn that Harper chewed down a pine tree. After admonishing the police officer on the line for laughing, Hannah promises to take a taxi and retrieve Harper. She insists that there is no need to take Harper to a hospital because “she’s not insane, she’s just peculiar” (152).

That same night, Prior is asleep in bed with no sign of the destruction from the previous scene. He wakes up from a nightmare, surprised and dismayed to discover that he has had a wet dream and soaked his pants. Prior immediately calls Belize, who is at work at New York Hospital and reports what happened. Belize teases him as Prior explains that it was caused by a woman: an angel. Prior asks Belize to come over because he feels “lascivious” (153), but Belize quips that he has his own life outside of Prior. Prior describes the strange mixture of arousal and sadness that he is feeling, both incredible and terrible, and realizes that he is crying. Prior is afraid, but he is also overcome with happiness and hope. Henry, Roy’s doctor (played by Hannah), enters and demands to know if Belize is the nurse on duty. He criticizes Belize’s clothing. Prior asks Belize to sing, and Belize obliges, singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” at Prior’s request, as Henry is more and more impatient and rude.

Belize says, “Call you back. There’s a man bothering me” (155). Henry gives Belize a chart and starts barking orders. Belize stops him when he says that the patient has liver cancer, because this is the wrong floor. Henry insists condescendingly that he is on the right floor, emphasizing that the patient is an extremely important person. Wryly, Belize asks, “Then I shouldn’t fuck up his medication?” (155) Henry exits, and Belize immediately calls Prior, exclaiming, “Guess who just checked in with the troubles? The Killer Queen Herself. New York’s number one closeted queer” (156). Prior guesses Koch, and Belize whispers Roy’s name into the phone. Shocked at first, Prior shrugs and says, “the Lord moves in mysterious ways” (156). 

Roy is terrified and extremely ill in a hospital bed. Belize enters, and Roy immediately demands a white nurse, spouting racist insults as Belize prepares to insert his IV. Belize warns him to stop, threatening to place his IV so the drip is painful if he doesn’t. This impresses Roy. Although Roy complains about the pain he is in, he turns down a painkiller when Belize says that it will put him to sleep. Roy brags that when he had facelifts, he made the surgeon use local anesthesia so he could watch. Belize calls him a liar because no surgeon would agree to that, but Roy claims that he can get whatever he wants. For example, Roy decides that he wants Belize to be his friend, adding that Black people and Jewish people have a historical alliance as protesting liberals. And unlike Jewish people, Black people did not become communists, which Roy respects. Belize lists the disgusting things he would rather do than be Roy’s friend, but Roy stops him as he exits, admitting that he doesn’t want to be alone. Roy is frustrated at being stuck in a hospital bed with a sickness he cannot control. Roy claims that he isn’t racist because racists are simple.

Reluctantly, Belize says that he can offer two pieces of advice. First, Roy is slated for chemo for his “cancer,” but chemo will wipe out his remaining immune system and kill him. Roy insults Belize as a nurse who thinks he knows more than Roy’s high-priced doctor but asks for the second piece of advice. Belize tells Roy that even though he has managed to get himself into the exclusive AZT trial, the conditions of the trial allow them to give him a placebo. Therefore, if Roy still has clout to exercise, he needs to make sure he gets the real drug. Skeptical, Roy hurls racist and anti-gay slurs at Belize, expressing doubt that Belize would help him. Belize replies, “Consider it solidarity. One f****t to another” (161). The nurse exits, as Roy yells threats to ruin his career. Alone, Roy picks up the phone and dials Martin Heller, demanding that Martin acquire a personal supply of AZT for Roy so he can make sure he has the real drug. He threatens to blackmail him otherwise. As Martin splutters on the other end, Roy states, “Oh, you only think you know all I know. I don’t even know what all I know. Half the time I just make it up and it still turns out to be true” (161). 

On the same night, Louis leads Joe into his apartment. It is messy and sparse—a depressing place in a depressing part of the city. Joe hesitates when Louis tries to touch him, mentioning that Louis’s partner is sick. Louis agrees that he is extremely sick, although he is no longer his partner. Moreover, Louis promises that they can use protection to be safe. Joe decides that he needs to leave, and Louis tells him bitterly to go home to his wife, noting that Joe hadn’t taken off his wedding ring before meeting him at the park. In attempted friendliness, Joe hugs Louis. Louis compliments his scent, explaining to Joe the eroticism of smell because it involves inhaling molecules of each other. It is similar to taste. Louis tells Joe to breathe him in too, and Joe does. He likes it. Louis moves on to taste, licking Joe’s cheek and then kissing him. Louis reaches into the front of Joe’s pants. After an intense moment, Louis tastes his finger. Then he kisses Louis and asks what it tastes like. Joe replies, “Well… Nighttime” (165). Louis asks him again to stay, and Joe agrees. Joe starts to ask a question, but Louis quiets him, asserting, “Let’s stop talking. Or if you have to talk, talk dirty” (165).

Three weeks later, in February 1986, Belize and Prior have just attended a friend’s funeral. Belize wears bright, cheerful colors, and Prior wears a long dark coat with a black scarf draped over his head: “his appearance is disconcerting, menacing, and vaguely redolent of the Biblical” (167). The stage directions note that this should be Prior’s base costume for the rest of the play: “it should be strange but not too strange” (167). Prior thought the funeral was tacky and too much, but Belize loved it. The deceased was a drag and style icon in the city, and Belize insists that he required a glittery funeral. Prior disagrees, calling the funeral a “parody of a funeral of someone who really counted” (168), because no one cares about gay people.

Belize criticizes Prior for his strange and bitter mood lately, and Prior bites back that he cannot take pleasure in funerals because he knows that his is inevitable. Belize comments on Prior’s odd fashion choice, which Prior says is meant to look like “the wrath of God” (168). Prior admits that his peripheral vision has started failing, but he hasn’t gone to the eye doctor because he believes that the wet dream about the angel was real and he is a prophet. He says that the Angel gave him a prophecy in the form of a book, which was placed in his mind. This worries Belize, but Prior tells him that he had been suffering from nightmares since Louis left, and they stopped when the angel arrived.

Belize watches as Prior replays the scene with the Angel from three weeks earlier. Prior tries to tell the Angel to leave, but she insists that Prior has been prepared by prophetic dreams, ordering him to dig under his kitchen tiles to retrieve the Sacred Prophetic Implements. Prior argues that he hasn’t remembered a dream in months and refuses to destroy the kitchen in the apartment he rents, so the Angel, annoyed, does it herself with a cough. Prior fetches a suitcase, complaining that the Angel also cracked the refrigerator. She commands him to open the case. He takes out a pair of glasses with stones for lenses. Prior puts them on and then tears them off, horrified by what he sees. The Angel tells him to get the book from the case and to put the glasses back on and read. Carefully, Prior tries, but his erection is distracting him. The Angel and Prior both become increasingly aroused, and Prior is compelled to thrust against the book until he orgasms. Belize is shocked by this, and Prior explains that the Angel has eight vaginas. According to Prior, the Angel said that God created angels to adore him, and he created humans with the ability to exercise free will and allow for change and randomness. Human progress and migration created instability in heaven, which is a city like San Francisco.

God, more interested in humans than angels, started disappearing to watch them. One day, on April 18th, 1906, God disappeared and did not return. Belize notes that abandonment seems to be a common theme in Prior’s life. Sadly, Prior agrees and says that if Louis came back, he would accept him, but Belize tells him to let Louis go and move on. The Angel pronounces that humankind has caused God to leave, stalling their progress, and they need to stop moving until God returns. Prior decides that he does not want to participate in the prophecy because he is tired of suffering. The Angel replies that Prior cannot hide from his purpose. She holds Prior gently and then presses the book against him, commanding that the word is now written in his blood. The Angel re-ascends through the ceiling, and Prior changes out of his pajamas. Belize thinks that Prior is spending too much time alone. Prior is certain that the encounter was either real or he is going insane. Furious, Belize tells Prior that he had better not lose his mind. The voice of the Angel tells Prior to spread the prophecy, and Prior remarks that maybe the AIDS virus is the virus of prophecy, and now that he’s seen the end of the world, he’s losing his sight, which seems logical to him.

In a split scene that takes place a week after Act II, Joe and Louis are in bed. Louis sleeps while Joe watches Harper on the other side of the stage in their Brooklyn apartment. She takes off the dirty nightgown she’s been wearing for three weeks, and Hannah brings her fresh clothes. Obediently, Harper gets dressed and allows Hannah to brush her hair. Hannah asserts that disappointment is hard to accept, but Harper will learn to live with it with enough faith. Harper complains that it is five a.m., but Hannah insists that she must be the first one into the Mormon Visitor’s Center when it opens. Hannah notes that Joe won’t return her calls and is likely embarrassed by his behavior. Harper crosses over to Joe and Louis. Joe begs her to leave, and Harper exclaims that he called to her. Harper mocks Joe for being in love with Louis, which Joe hadn’t realized. Joe demands that she leave, and Harper disappears. Louis wakes up. He describes a dream in which he and Joe were celebrating an anniversary but ended up at a funeral parlor in a religious temple. There had been an angry woman, and Louis discovered that Joe was a part of a strange religious group like the Moonies or Mormons. Joe stares for a moment and then tells Louis that he is a Mormon. Louis replies, “Huh” (186).

At the same time, Roy is in his hospital bed, hiding his intense stomach pain as he argues on the phone about his disbarment committee hearings, which are about to start. Ethel Rosenberg (played by Hannah) appears and watches Roy, who stares back. Roy occasionally speaks to her, casually including her in the conversation. Belize enters with medication and tells Roy to hang up the phone because he must watch him swallow his pills. Roy dismisses Belize, throwing verbal abuse at him before finally slapping the pills to the floor and hanging up. Roy rants that he doesn’t trust the hospital, claiming that Lillian Hellman, a playwright accused of being a member of the Communist Party, might be downstairs meddling with his pills. Roy tells Belize that he is “self-medicating” (188) and shows him the contents of a locked cooler, which is full of AZT. Belize is incredulous, noting that there are perhaps 30 people in the United States who have managed to get this experimental drug, and Roy has procured more than he could take in fifty years.

Belize asks Roy to share ten bottles with him for his friends who need it. Roy refuses because he hates Belize and his friends, and they argue. Roy calls Belize a series of slurs, and Belize insults him back, finishing with a slur for Jewish people. This impresses Roy, who agrees to give Belize a single bottle. Belize takes three from the cooler and exits. Roy reacts to the spasms of pain that he has been covering up, relieved that Belize has left. He asks Ethel if she plans to stare at him all night, and she replies that she intends to stay until morning, and then she will attend his disbarment hearings. Ethel laughs, and Roy screeches at her, starting to dial the phone and then hanging it up. Defeated, Roy laments that being sick in America makes even the powerful become marginalized. When Reagan, who Roy believes is extremely healthy and strong, was shot in an assassination attempt in 1981, he made a point to demonstrate his strength and resilience by riding horses two days later. Roy adds, “That’s America. It’s just no country for the infirm” (192). 

This scene takes place later the same day in the Mormon Visitor’s Center’s Diorama Room. It’s a small theatre with a proscenium stage with closed curtains, and Harper sits in the audience surrounded by the remnants of the snacks she’s been eating. Prior enters. A recorded voice (the voice of the Angel) welcomes him to the Diorama Room and reminds visitors that food and drink aren’t allowed. The tape glitches, startling Prior, and Harper comments that there have been machinery issues. Harper reassures Prior that she can eat there because she lives there. Harper asks if she and Prior have met, and Prior says they have not. She explains to Prior that behind the curtain is a diorama of a Mormon family, and that the father mannequin looks uncannily like her husband. Prior asks if Harper is a Mormon, and Harper describes herself as a “Jack Mormon,” or a Mormon who is “flawed. Inferior Mormon product” (193). Prior questions whether she believes in the angel “Mormon,” and Harper corrects, “Moroni,” adding, “Ask my mother-in-law […] why don’t they call them Morons” (193). Harper recognizes that Prior isn’t Mormon, presuming that he is “distracted with grief” (194), since that’s what typically draws non-Mormons in. Prior claims that he is an angelologist studying angels.

Harper muses that it must be difficult to study a subject that the researcher cannot meet until after death, and Prior asserts that he met one who dropped in through his ceiling. Harper replies, “Huh. That sort of thing always happens to me” (194). Prior acknowledges that he is sick with a fever but is too restless to stay in bed. Prior notes that Harper looks very familiar, and Harper agrees that he does too, but they couldn’t have met before since she never goes anywhere.

The curtains open, revealing a historically dressed mannequin family (a mother, two sons, a daughter, and a father, played by Joe) and their covered wagon, depicting the Mormon journey from Missouri to Salt Lake City. The recorded voice narrates, setting the historical scene in 1847. Harper says hi to Joe. The lines of the mannequin boys, Caleb (voiced by Belize) and Orrin (voiced by the Angel), are pre-recorded. They are afraid of the trek ahead, and their father reassures them that the Lord will take care of them on the way to their promised land. Harper interjects commentary, pointing out that the mother and daughter mannequins have no lines, that the kids have a high chance of dying along the way, and that once they get to Salt Lake, the water is undrinkable. The boys beg their father to tell them a story, and Joe/dad starts to tell them about the Prophet in 1823, asserting that only one church is the “real” church.

Then, Louis appears suddenly in the scene, questioning Joe about his beliefs and exclaiming his dismay at having spent a month unknowingly sleeping with a Mormon. Joe tries to keep Louis from disrupting the scene. In the audience, Prior is taken aback and panicking, certain that he must be hallucinating and demanding to know why he is there. But Harper sees Louis too. She identifies him as “the little creep” who is “in and out every day,” adding, “I hate him. He’s got absolutely nothing to do with the story” (197). Joe and Louis continue their argument and then kiss. For a moment, Louis thinks that he hears Prior. Louis convinces Joe to leave with him, which Harper muses has never happened before. Harper shuts the diorama down and notices that Prior is crying. She says, “This isn’t a place for real feelings, this is just storytime here, stop” (198). Prior is upset to discover that losing his mental stability is so much work, and Harper agrees. However, she reminds Prior that this is her place, and he can’t be sad here. Harper adds that if Prior sees “the creep” (199), he needs to tell him to return Joe, so Harper isn’t evicted, because Harper cannot go back to Brooklyn or anywhere else.

Hannah enters, irked to see Prior crying and demanding to know what Harper did. Forcefully, Hannah reopens the curtains, as Harper tries to stop her. But when the curtains open, the diorama is back to normal, featuring a complete family of mannequins. The dad mannequin no longer resembles Joe. Harper says, “Look, we… imagined it” (199). Hannah admonishes Harper for setting up camp in the room and making a mess. Harper complains that Hannah is too much like Joe, and she tells Prior how Hannah dropped everything, sold her house, and moved to New York when her son said that he was gay. Prior wonders if he is dreaming. Hannah is brusque, expressing disinterest in Prior’s personal struggles and his reasons for being there. She insists that Prior shouldn’t be there if he isn’t serious, even if it is a Visitor’s Center. Abruptly, Hannah pronounces the diorama closed for repairs and tells Prior to leave, ordering Harper to clean up as she exits. Harper says that she’s been waiting for the wife mannequin to speak, as she imagines that her story is unhappy.

Harper and Prior agree that imagination can be dangerous, but it can also lead to, as they say simultaneously, the threshold of revelation. Although they have never met, Prior remarks that they know each other well. Harper comments, “Crazy time. The barn door’s open now, and all the cows have fled” (201). She suggests that he go home to bed. Prior is afraid that he will die there, but Hannah asserts that it’s better than dying in the street. Prior leaves, and Harper addresses the Mormon Mother, played by the Angel, asking her what to do. The Mother steps out of the diorama and indicates that Harper should follow. Harper tells her that her heart is also heavy and holding her in place. The Mother says, “Leave it, then. Can’t carry no extra weight” (201). Harper takes her place in the diorama and comments that they look like a perfect family, and maybe she could have continued to believe Joe if they hadn’t left Salt Lake City. The Mother tells Harper to come with her, and they both leave.

Later that afternoon, Joe and Louis sit on the beach. Joe is freezing in the winter cold, but Louis never pays attention to weather. He comments that gay men used to ignore the cold and use the dunes as a site for meeting and sex. Louis compares their sexual explorations to the Mormon pioneers, although Joe disagrees mildly. Louis also feels guilty because Prior wasn’t as sexually promiscuous as he was, so he believes it is unfair that he has AIDS. He expresses incredulity again that Joe is a Mormon, realizing for the first time that Joe’s unusual underwear is his temple garment, which Joe calls, “Protection. A second skin” (203). Joe offers to stop wearing it for Louis. He also tells Louis that he is happy, which Louis cannot believe. They talk about conservatives and Reagan, and Louis is appalled to discover that the more repulsed he is by Joe’s politics, the more aroused he becomes. They kiss.

Joe tells Louis that leaving Prior was brave and that he loves him. Louis insists that Joe doesn’t love him, and that it’s “just the gay virgin thing” (205) that makes him think he does. Louis admits that he feels the need to see Prior—not necessarily to rekindle the relationship, but because he misses him. Joe acknowledges that he misses Harper, although she scares him. Joe asks if Louis is leaving him, but Louis doesn’t know. Joe asserts that he will to anything for Louis, even give up his skin. Joe strips his clothes off and then the temple garment. Nearly naked, Joe says, “I’m flayed. No past now” (206), adding that it is even possible that Joe could have AIDS if Louis turns out to have contracted it from Prior. Joe tells Louis that he feels guilty because he is a good, gentle person, but that sometimes the kindest thing to do isn’t to be weak and gentle; it is to act in one’s own self-interest. When Louis starts to walk away, Joe urges, “And then you’ll come back to me” (207). Louis stops, facing away from Joe, and Joe repeats it, shouting with passion.

Joe and Louis stay onstage. On another part of the stage, Roy is asleep in his hospital bed. Belize enters with a glass of water and wakes Roy to take his medication. Roy is on morphine and hallucinating, first calmly identifying Belize as the bogeyman who one day, long ago, took Roy’s mother away. Roy tells Belize to go ahead and take him in his arms and into death. Then Roy invites Belize into his bed, “a serious sexual invitation” (208). Belize promises that he will be back soon to take Roy away, because all he wants from Roy is the end of him. Belize starts to leave, but Roy calls him back. He asks what happens after life ends. Belize asks if he wants to know about Heaven or Hell, and Roy stares at him as if to say that the answer should be obvious. Belize says that it is like San Francisco, but with piles of jewels and voting booths instead of garbage in the streets, and everyone is dressed in designer ball gowns. All races dance together at dance halls, and the gods are multiracial. Belize finishes, “Race, taste and history finally overcome. And you ain’t there” (210). Glad for this last sentence, Roy asks what heaven is like. Belize smirks, “That was Heaven, Roy” (210). Roy expresses disbelief. Suddenly scared, he demands to know who Belize is. Belize whispers, “Your negation” (210). Roy replies that Belize is nothing to him. Ethel Rosenberg enters. Belize tells Roy to sleep, adding, “I’m just the shadow on your grave” (210). 

Joe, Louis, Roy, Belize, and Ethel are still onstage. Harper enters with the Mormon Mother. It’s nighttime at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Harper worries that it is unsafe on the street because “there are crazy people around” (211). The Mother indicates the skyline, describing “[t]owers filled with fire. It’s the Great Beyond” (211). Harper asks if crossing the country as a pioneer was hard, but the Mother tells her to ask a real question—not an obvious one. After a moment, Harper asks her how people change. The Mother replies, “Well it has something to do with God so it’s not very nice” (211). She goes on to explain how God uses a ragged thumbnail to rip people open, pull out their innards with his dirty hand, and then shove their mangled guts back inside, leaving the person to suture themselves back together and stand up. At home, Prior starts to take off the “black prophet clothes” (211) that have been his costume since Act II. He is forlorn and very sick. The Mother announces that she smells salty air, which “means he’s coming back. Then you’ll know. Then you’ll eat fire” (211). The Mother starts to sing “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean,” and Harper sings with her. Louis walks away from Joe on the beach. From a payphone, Louis calls Prior, who is in the middle of taking his pills, and tells Prior that he wants to see him.