Angels in America, aka the play that made me cry for 20 minutes non-stop

 Angels in America

        Hello Charlie! Theo from T3 here.

Have you ever wanted to see Andrew Garfield in drag?

Okay, maybe that's a little too specific of an opening, I'll try again. Have you ever wanted to see a 6-hour long theatre play which grapples with the complex and tragic history of the AIDS crisis? That also focuses on themes of self-acceptance, queerness, politics, mental health, religion, solidarity and joy despite everything terrible going on around you? 

Well, if you have somehow magically been wanting to watch this (and by this I mean a 6-hour long theatre play which grapples with the complex and tragic history of the AIDS crisis that also focuses on themes of self-acceptance, queerness, politics, mental health, religion, solidarity and joy despite everything terrible going on around you, in case you hadn't caught that yet), I have wonderful news for you! The BFI section has access to a part of the National Theatre's online play collection, and this play is included within it.

I know, 6 hours might seem extremely discouraging, but hey: it's in two parts, and you can just pause at the end of a scene and keep watching the day afterwards (it took me 5 days to actually, fully finish it, but we don't talk about that ❤). 

As it's theatre, it's also originally drama, and don't we love that in the BFI? The original play is quite long, 304 pages, but goodness, it's one of the best things I've ever read. It's swept so many awards in its different adaptations (as it's also a TV series featuring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep), and in this particular staging, it's absolutely heart-shattering. The different personalities of the characters are so well written, it feels like people you'd be able to meet and have a conversation with completely casually. They're human.

My personal favourite characters were Hannah, Belize and Prior, they're honestly just interesting and complex and genuinely touching characters. It's impossible to not get attached to anyone at all while watching this- plus, the dialogue is written so well that everything just flows together perfectly. The writer of the play, Tony Kushner, doesn't shy away from showing his characters' flaws either.

One of the things I personally absolutely admired about the play was the fact that it blended tragedy and comedy so well (as I mentioned earlier!). Furthermore, there are also some parts that lean into the supernatural a bit more than others, but even those are done so wonderfully! It's honestly just a really entertaining and thoughtful play. Also, the gif next to here shows Andrew Garfield in part one (Millenium Approaches), scene 6 of the play, and dear Lord, I'm always surprised in the way that he doesn't completely lose his voice while doing these roles. 

Either way, you should watch this for phenomenal acting and flawed but lovable characters (and for Andrew Garfield in drag, obviously)- they're just like us, after all! Also watch it so I can talk about it with you for ages and ages. Good luck with that.

That's all for now! Bye Charlie!