God bless chaos, says Roy Cohn, considered an evil man by many — the most rotten bastard who ever snorted cocaine at Studio 54. A New York lawyer full of rage at everybody, with the means to get things done; he has strings and he pulls them. Maybe it is not a coincidence that he is Jewish. He is mean — that is his weapon of choice. He denies he has AIDS and threatens the doctor to destroy his career if the papers say what he has. So it is written as liver cancer.

Anything can happen, any awful thing, says Harper, who is married to a closeted homosexual who voted for Reagan twice. Probably a mortal sin, that minuscule deed, in this world of sinners, gays, queens, beggars, the faithful and the faithless.

Ethel Rosenberg visits Roy as a ghost. Ethel was executed for spying for the Soviet Union. She comes to see if she can forgive.

“Land of the free, home of the brave. Call me irresponsible,” says Roy. Irresponsible behaviour is blissful: the young Mormon, Joe, goes out in the evenings and walks. His wife asks where he goes. He doesn’t answer. She asks if he is gay. He cannot say it out loud.

The body is the garden of the soul. The Angel has eight vaginas. Human beings are genitaled. It is 1986. The plague is on. People die of AIDS. It is a dissection of 1980s America with a heavy baggage of guilt. Ozone layer is thinning, there is a huge hole. Climate change is a concern that at the end of the millenia feels an ending of all. Atmosphere is quite accurate and the ways of the world haven’t changed. Why would they?

The rabbi, played by Meryl Streep, fondly remembers how Jews from Russia and Lithuania came to New York by boat. European heritage in America, roots and old pictures. What are these roots in a shallow fast world looking for instant gratification? Who were these people who came, and from whom do Americans descend? Hard working, hopeful people with a lot of faith. How much are Americans still European? Work ethic, morals, the idea of the freedom of man, creativity, customs and beliefs — very Judeo-Christian: the guilt, and yet still doing what one should not. Selfishly making one’s way, taking what there is to take. Still exploring the new, making the unimagibable true. Almost forgetting one’s place, the meaning of faith and God by becoming God? Something watches over us is the idea and now it is us who watch. The meaning is not forgetting our humble existence and become almighty, but that is the curse of man, desire to have all power.

The Angel says, “I, I, I, I.” Louis remembers the Kaddish at Roy’s deathbed. “You son of a bitch.” He takes Roy’s AZT stash to give it to other AIDS patients — what he came there for. God isn’t coming back. The twentieth century was a terrible century, he says. How dare He? Waiting for the 21st century.

The miniseries examines the differences between beliefs and how they shape the way people see their lot in life. Jews grab every opportunity and make the best of what there is to take. The young Jewish man struggles with his guilt, as does the Mormon Reagan-voting closeted homosexual — “a Marlboro Man,” says Prior, who is battling AIDS. Louis has sex with the Mormon Marlboro-Man lawyer who is struggling with guilt and denial endlessly as is Louis. He leaves the dying alone: his grandmother and Prior. How to be good and do good is to forget oneself. Narcissists can’t forget themselves and their own good.

Three weeks in bed with a Mormon was a liberating experience.. for the Mormon.

Roy Cohn talks a lot. In hospital he has conversations with a male nurse, a fairy; they hate each other. “Who are you?” says Roy. “Oh, you are nothing.” The same as when Harper asks her Mormon husband, standing naked: “What do you see?” He replies: “I see nothing.”

In the hospital Prior tells the Mormon’s mother: “I saw an angel.” He had a vision. “One hundred and seventy years ago Mr. Smith saw an angel,” the mother says.

People fuck up continuously. All they can do is blame themselves and feel continuous guilt. Religion gives us that continuous battle and releases us from it, but which religion? Who are the angels? During Corona, and during any epidemic, they are the people who take care of others and do not run away. Nurses.

Angels in America explores human flaws that are like lesions, and AIDS, a deadly illness, and the chaos that mere feelings and desires create. On his deathbed Roy says to the male nurse: “Next time I don’t want to be a man. I want to be an octopus.” The Angel is listening, of course.

In his hallucinations Prior discovers that the angels are just actors. They cannot change the fate of humans, cure the plague, or do anything other than give comforting words and shed light. Angels sitting in an ancient round, as if rehearsing a play, wearing winter clothes. How much does the ancient still dictate how we think? Philosophy and religion, the questions of why and how to live — and how gays push the boundaries of the proper, and how denying one’s desires is just as destructive as indulging in all of them.

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a 1991 two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The two parts of the play, Millennium Approachesand Perestroika, are occasionally presented separately. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_in_Americahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_in_America