Angels in America still resonates with new generation 25 years later
Students from Langara College's Studio 58 perform the acclaimed play about the 1980s AIDS epidemic
A Vancouver production of Angels in America — the critically acclaimed play depicting the AIDS crisis in New York in the 1980s — is connecting its young actors to an important part of history.
Tony Kushner's Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning play premiered in 1991 in the midst of the AIDS crisis — a time when many of director Rachel Peake's student cast members weren't even born yet.
"They know of that time as a historical event, but not necessarily one that they had a lot of emotional connection to," she said.
Actor Julien Galipeau plays Prior Walter, the play's main character who finds out he has contracted HIV.
"I feel like young gays such as myself are not as connected to the history of the AIDS crisis — they just don't quite know how serious it was and how much people sacrificed during that time," he said.
Peake, who described the play as "profound ... yet so funny and full of spectacle," brought in members of Vancouver's gay community who lived during the AIDS crisis to speak with her young cast.
Brandon Bagg, who plays Walter's lover, Louis Ironson, in the play, said the meetings were deeply moving.
"One of the gentlemen that we spoke with said he had a list of names of people he was close with — he had 100 names on it of all of his friends that had passed away. Confronting that and finding a way to relate to that personally was definitely a challenge ... but in a lot of ways, this is a play about mortality [and] we're all confronted with that every day."
Galipeau agreed, adding the show still speaks to people today.
"It's witty. It's heartwarming. I don't think it's hard to bring the content to a new generation, but I think the message is extremely important to keep showing to people," he said.
Angels in America plays at Langara College's Studio 58 from Sept. 29 to Oct.16, 2016.
With files from The Early Edition
To hear the segment, click on the link labelled Vancouver production celebrates 25th anniversary of Angels in America