02
Feb
2015
[For Thom White's review of part one of the District Theatre's Angels in America, visit "Darkness and Plight."]
Something clicked for the cast and crew of the District Theatre's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches since November, and now Angels' second half, Perestroika, is notably better for it. Director Deb Shippy and her cast have embraced the humor of playwright Tony Kushner's magnum opus, and the result is an emotionally layered staging that's superior to last fall's production.
With its emotional language and poetic imagery, Tony Kushner's Angels in America - the playwright's "gay fantasia on national themes" composed of two parts subtitled Millennium Approaches and Perestroika - is among my favorite scripts. And there are times at which the District Theatre's production of Millennium Approaches nails the nuances of Kushner's writing, allowing the beauty of his intent to be on full display.
A year-and-a-half after enjoying his performance in New Ground Theatre's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, I am glad to see David Turley on a Quad Cities stage again in the company's Next Fall. It was Turley's portrayals of John Hinckley in the Green Room Theatre's 2008 Assassins and William Barfee in the Harrison Hilltop Theatre's 2010 The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that initially endeared me to his comedic deliveries. And I'm grateful to see him employ his skills as this new play's 40-year-old gay atheist Adam, a character performed with more subtlety than those aforementioned roles, but one that still employs Turley's amusing brand of dry, sarcastic, slightly dark humor.
