Prior Walter - Male, White, in his 30s. The boyfriend Louis abandons after Prior reveals that he has AIDS. Prior becomes a prophet when he is visited by an Angel of God, but he eventually rejects his prophecy and demands a blessing of additional life. The Angel is drawn to Prior because of his illness, which inscribes a kind of ending in his bloodstream, and because of his ancient Anglo-Saxon lineage, representing the notion of being rooted and stable. But he proves wiser than the Angels in rejecting their doctrine of stasis in favor of the painful necessity of movement and migration. Prior is as genuinely decent and moral as Louis is flawed. His AIDS infection renders him weak and victimized, but he manages to transcend that mere victimhood, surviving and becoming the center of a new, utopian community at the play's end.
Joe Pitt - Male, in his 30s A Mormon, Republican lawyer at the appeals court, Joe grapples with his latent homosexuality, leaving his wife Harper for Louis and being left in turn by Louis. Louis is at first drawn to Joe's ideology but ultimately turns on him because he is a conservative and an intimate of the hated Roy Cohn. His initial naiveté is challenged by Roy's unethical behavior and his painful love affair. Joe's path in the play (from self-sufficient and strong to helpless and dependent) is in some ways the opposite of Prior's trajectory. The play finally seems to abandon Joe, excluding him from its vision of the good society because of his ideology-an omission that comes off as uncharacteristically narrow and intolerant.
Harper Pitt - Female, white, in her thirties Joe's wife, a Valium-addicted agoraphobe trapped in a failing marriage who hallucinates and invents imaginary characters to escape her troubles. The perpetually fearful Harper obsesses about knife-wielding men and the ozone layer as a subconscious stand-in for her own difficulties. But through an inexplicable dream encounter with Prior, she learns that her husband is gay and begins to take control of her own destiny. Of all the major characters, Harper ends the play the farthest from where she began: as an independent, confident woman newly in love with life and setting off to build her own life in San Francisco.
Roy Cohn - Male in his 50s, A famous New York lawyer and powerbroker, Roy Cohn was a real-life figure whom Kushner adapted for his play. Roy is the play's most vicious and disturbing character, a closeted homosexual who disavows other gays and cares only about amassing clout. His lack of ethics led him to illegally intervene in the espionage trial of Ethel Rosenberg, which resulted in her execution. Roy represents the opposite of community, the selfishness and loneliness all too endemic to American life. However, his malevolence goes beyond mere isolation to actual hatred and evil. He is forgiven (though not exonerated) in the play's moral climax, after his death (from AIDS) unwittingly reconnects him to the gay community from which he always distanced himself.
Belize - Male, A black ex-drag queen and registered nurse, Belize is Prior's best friend and-quite against Belize's will-Roy's caretaker. He is the most ethical and reasonable character in the play, generously looking out for Prior, grappling with Roy and rebutting Louis's blindly self-centered politics. At times Belize feels less like an individual than a symbol of marginalized groups, particularly since most of his history and personal life are hidden from the audience. But despite these omissions he remains complex-full of hatred for Roy, yet possessing sufficient character and morality to forgive him.
Hannah Pitt - Female, Joe's mother, who moves from Salt Lake City to New York after Joe confesses he is gay in a late-night phone call. Hannah tends sternly to Harper but blossoms after she encounters Prior, becoming his companion and friend. Her chilly demeanor is melted by Prior and by a remarkable sexual encounter with the Angel.
The Angel of America - Female, An imposing, terrifying, divine presence who descends from Heaven to bestow prophecy on Prior. The Angel seeks a prophet to overturn the migratory impulse of human beings, believing that their constant motion and change have driven God to abandon creation. Her cosmology is disturbingly reactionary, even deadly, and Prior successfully resists it in a visit to Heaven. This reactionary nature is rather surprisingly blended with a dramatic, Whitman-esque speaking style and an overpowering, multigendered sexuality.
Ethel Rosenberg - Female, A real-life Jewish woman who was executed for treason during the McCarthy era. The Ethel of the play returns as a ghost to take satisfaction in the death of her persecutor, Roy. Ethel hates Roy with a "needlesharp" passion, yet on his deathbed she musters enough compassion to sing to him. Her recitation of the Kaddish with Louis indicates her forgiveness.
Rabbi Isador Chemelwitz - Female, An elderly rabbi who delivers the eulogy at the funeral of Sarah Ironson, Rabbi Chemelwitz describes the conservative process by which Jewish immigrants resisted assimilation. Louis seeks spiritual guidance from him, and Prior later encounters him in Heaven on his way to confront the Angels.
Mr. Lies - Male, A travel agent who resembles a jazz musician, Mr. Lies is one of Harper's imaginary creations. She summons him whenever she wants to escape from her present surroundings, though Mr. Lies cautions her that there is a limit to her ability to flee from reality.
Henry - Female, Roy's doctor, whom Roy threatens with destruction lest he refer to him as a homosexual. Henry recognizes the folly of Roy's self-delusion but ultimately gives in to it, agreeing to set down his official condition as liver cancer.
Emily - Female, A nurse who attends to Prior in the hospital. Emily is one of several characters who give voice to the same anti-migratory impulse as the Angel, she tells Prior in no uncertain terms to stay put.
Martin Heller - Male, A Justice Department official and political ally of Roy's. Martin is fundamentally spineless, allowing Roy to manipulate him in order to impress Joe and then taking the abuse that Roy heaps on him along with a blackmail threat.
Sister Ella Chapter - Female, A real estate agent who handles the sale of Hannah's house in Salt Lake. Like Emily, she urges her friend to settle down and remain at home.
Prior I and Prior II - Males, Prior's ancestors who are summoned from the dead to help prepare the way for the Angel's arrival. Prior I is a medieval farmer, Prior II a seventeenth- century Londoner who is more sophisticated and cosmopolitan in outlook. Both men died of the plague.
The play, by Tony Kushner is one of the most interesting plays that have ever cross the path of theatre, where it is describing the atmosphere of Roy Cohn, He was one of the most famous lawyer in history and also seems to describe his life. It also surrounds about his questionable homosexuality and how his life has been affected by it. Indentity is the main idea that I think that Roy is encounting as he goes crazy and strange. This plays seems to describe the characters as they are marked by ethnicity such as: WASP, Jewish, Mormon, as well as black; in addition, the male characters are defined by their homosexuality. Even AIDS infection serves as an identity type, written into the skin as visibly as race. It also goes with religion of describing the characters of it that is being pushed upon in the play and also the spearding of Jewish religion, Mormonism and Judiasm. Most of the charcters have to be white, but in my view of it I think that any othet ethic can fit the other characters if it was be like double casting. There is also the aspects of the the Ronald Reagon and his Reagonmics that is told in the script and also the spearding and pain of AIDS. I think in my view that theer are different places that it undergoes like. I really think that double casting would be good, because the whole play is at least seven hours. The problem is that it is up to the copright issues that would matter. I wouldn't mind if the characters be hispanic or black especially the characters of Prior, Louis, and Roy, who I think would be the most interesting. Then again the issue would be the french language and the religion that not Hispanics are involved in, but it would be interesting if the non-traditional casting should happen with the play. I think that it would matter if if the main be white, because it would be more approriate for the play. On the other hand it would be very interesting to see how ethicity would make a possible impact in changing the race of it, where I think it would be great. The main thing that I think would work would be if double casting be involved if we get permission, but one question that will be affected by it would be the religion that surrounds the play that will cause questions pouring to the director about why this race and somewhat. In my view, I see no happen of seeing non-traditional casting be invloved in the play if possible, because I wouldn't mind if ethncity can be involved in the play of having hispanics in it in my view.
No comments:
Post a Comment