Eddie Shields and Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson in “Angels in America: Perestroika” at the Central Square Theater. Photo: Nile Scott Studios.
“Angels in America: Perestroika” by Tony Kushner. Directed by Eric Tucker. Presented by Central Square Theater and Bedlam at 450 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, through October 8.
by Michele Markarian
“Perestroika,” now playing at the Central Square Theater, picks up where “Angels in America; Part One” leaves off. It’s 1985, and the world’s oldest Bolshevik (Debra Wise) is addressing a crowd in Moscow. “Show me the words that will reorder the future, or else keep silent,” he intones, as the future of the Soviet Union and Communism are on the wane. This sets the tone for the rest of the four-hour play, which wrestles with prophesies, change, and a reordering of a wrecked present that the Angel (Helen Hy-Yuen Swanson) insists should remain static, as it is the motion and mingling of human beings that have turned God away from the Angels.
Prior Walter (Eddie Shields) and Louis (Zach Fich Hodges) are still uncoupled, as are Hannah (Kari Buckley) and Joe (Alexander Platt), who has begun a relationship with the self-involved Louis. Hannah, who has been unraveling since Part 1, is now under the care of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Pitt (Wise), who has flown in from Utah. Prior is being lovingly tended to by his friend Belize (Maurice Emmanuel Parent), who is also nurse to Roy Cohn (Barlowe Adamson), friendless and dying of “liver cancer” in the AIDS ward. Cohn is also sitting on a lifetime supply of AZT, an AIDS drug that very few have access to. Meanwhile, Prior has accepted the role of Prophet that the Angel has bestowed upon him; he just hasn’t accepted her prophecy. He confides his dismay to Mrs. Pitt, who says, “If it lets you down, reject it….Seek something new”. Prior confronts the Angels by rejecting their edict, and by the time both Joe and Louis approach their former loves with the desire to return, the future has indeed been reordered.
If you’ve invested in the excellent Part 1 of this series, you have no choice but to witness “Perestroika.” I found it to be a bit more cumbersome and less grounded than Part 1 – so much fantasia can be disorienting – but the excellent direction and cast make it worthwhile. There are some laugh-out-loud moments, such as the diorama scene from the Mormon Visitor’s Center, where figures from a migrating Mormon family come to life – sort of – or when Louis, after being slugged by Joe, declares drolly, “Oh, it looks like a sex scene from an Ayn Rand novel.” But when Prior says, “The earth is my home, and I want to go home,” one can’t help but feel the weight and beauty of being alive.
Eric Tucker’s fluid direction keeps the nearly four-hour play at a well-paced clip. The characters are almost always in motion, moving small set pieces, littering the stage, and sweeping it up, which makes the quiet, stationary moments that much more potent. Deb Sivigny’s set is nothing short of masterful; with a few tugs of a curtain or panel, it is easily transformed into whatever the scene requires – heaven, a hospital, a park. John R. Malinowski’s lighting design is equally powerful – it took me until the first intermission to realize that the skylit windows used to simulate daylight weren’t real.
The cast, as in Part 1, is terrific. Adamson uncannily embodies Roy Cohn. The cadence of his voice, his mannerisms, and the way he flings insults to everyone around him, real or imagined, is frightening. Parent brings down the house with his take on Grace Jones performing “Slave to the Rhythm.” But it’s Shields who is the heartbeat of the show, as the proud, brittle, and achingly vulnerable Prior (“The guy who’s playing Prior is ripping my heart out. He’s stomping on it”, I overheard an awestruck young woman say during the second intermission). It’s a bravura performance and one that reminds us, as Perestroika heralds a new day, how fragile life is and how grateful we are to be present. For tickets and information, go to: https://www.centralsquaretheater.org.
