Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

The first play begins with a rabbi, who is eulogizing at Sarah Ironson’s funeral. He describes Judaism as something fundamental that passes through families like blood, regardless of whether Sarah’s descendants observe customs and rituals. Most of the characters in the play are connected to a major organized religion. The different religions in the play are represented as variations on law and doctrine—frameworks of rules. Louis doesn’t practice Judaism, but he seeks advice from the rabbi on how he can leave Louis without guilt. Joe denies his sexuality because Mormons are not allowed to be gay. Religion also provides automatic community and built-in identity. The rabbi barely knew Sarah, but he speaks about her because he knows her in a deeper sense as a fellow Jewish immigrant. Joe, Harper, and Hannah have a community in Salt Lake City that will accept them (as long as they follow the rules), and Hannah locates herself in New York by finding the Mormon Visitor’s Center. Religious identity is also enmeshed with political identity. Joe’s Mormonism bolsters his conservative ideals as well as his incorruptible image, which Roy tries to use to his advantage. For Roy, his Jewish identity gave his conservative politics authenticity since he had to sacrifice his place in the Jewish community. Notably, the rabbi is played by Hannah, who is staunchly Mormon.

Religious identity is static in the play, contrasting with dynamic constructions of spirituality and faith. This difference is illustrated clearly when Hannah comes face to face with Prior’s Angel. She has been giving Prior advice about how to handle the Angel, but she is shocked to discover that the Angel is not a metaphor. Despite the efforts of religious characters to appease a God they fear, Prior’s interactions with the Angel reveal that God is gone. Religions are embedded in American history and culture, particularly Mormonism as a homegrown American religion, but they have remained stagnant throughout the human progress and migration that the angels want to stop. Faith and spirituality have become disconnected from religious traditions, even superseding them. For instance, Belize brings Prior a cream that is blessed by a voodoo practitioner, describing it as cheap lotion full of positive vibes—not doctrine or medicine but human warmth. The rules of Mormonism deny the existence of LGBTQ+ individuals, but Hannah’s love and care for Prior stem from an underlying sense of spiritual connection with fellow humans. The way that even the characters who practice religion dismiss Prior’s visions demonstrates that their religious practices are more about tradition than faith.

Prior tells Belize that perhaps AIDS is a “virus of prophecy” (182). In the mid-1980s, an HIV/AIDS diagnosis meant walking a path toward premature death. The three characters who experience visions of the supernatural—Prior, Harper, and Roy—are the ones who have been near death. For Prior, dead ancestors and angels push him to do something to save the world. Roy is haunted by the woman he had executed. Harper, who isn’t dying but flirts with her own death by overdosing on valium, sees parts of the living world that she dreams of experiencing. Believing that these are visions rather than hallucinations is a matter of faith, and none of the other characters believe that they are real. But there are hints of reality when Prior and Harper meet in a vision, and when Ethel calls an ambulance or informs Roy that he has been disbarred. Religious doctrine and spirituality come together when Louis is called upon to sing for Roy the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. As a non-religious Jew, the Kaddish doesn’t hold special meaning for Louis, and he doesn’t know the words or what they mean. But it is meaningful to Ethel, who performs what feels like a miracle to Louis by helping him through as an act of mercy toward Roy, even if Roy did nothing to earn it. At the end of the play, Hannah demonstrates that religion can only remain relevant and spiritual if it adapts with the times.