Seattle Gay News
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Issue 37, Volume 42, September 12, 2014
Chris Bennion / Courtesy of Intiman Theatre
Marya Sea Kaminski and Adam Standley in Intiman Theatre’s Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika
by Miryam Gordon SGN A&E Writer ANGELS IN AMERICA – PART 2: PERESTROIKA INTIMAN THEATRE Through September 21
riage is very close to becoming the law of the entire United States. Laws are very much restructured. Angels in America is a seminal play in the documentation of the AIDS crisis in the mid ‘80s. It reminds us how terribly painful AIDS was at first, before the possibility of “managing” the disease. It reminds us how stigmatizing AIDS was as America focused on homosexuality and not the disease. Although Part 2 is actually longer in length, it moves faster. But it would be hard to imagine making the marathon that Intiman is encouraging, seeing Part 1 in the afternoon and then Part 2 after a dinner break! That is six and a half hours of just performance, plus breaks. (Those actors are working hard!)
Perestroika is a Russian word for “restructuring.” In Part 2 of Angels in America, it is a harbinger of change to come. In large and small ways, the characters in the play and the society in which they live are restructuring. One of the ways politics in the 1980s and ‘90s were restructuring was due, at least in part, to the activism that AIDS forced on the LGBT population. Gay people had to become vocal or die. President Reagan had to be forced to acknowlIn Angels in America – Part 2: edge the epidemic and to put finanPerestroika, we revisit the characcial resources to work to combat it. ters from Part 1. The angel (Marya While Angels is focused on the late 1980s, we sit in 2014 in a very differsee Angels page 6 ent landscape, where same-sex mar-
an enchanting aria to life’s enigmatic complexities
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN LATINO THEATRE PROJECTS BALLARD UNDERGROUND Through September 28 Who doesn’t like to learn new things? Did you know, for instance, that sometimes the Metro #43 bus becomes the #44 and continues all the way from Capitol Hill to Ballard? Or the difference between microaggression and macro-aggression? Or that there was a 1973 Chilean coup d’état? Or that, now and then, we all could use a staycation? To confirm these things, simply hop on the #43/44 bus (check with Metro for exact schedule) headed toward the Ballard Underground (2220 NW Market St.) on any Friday or Saturday evening (8 p.m. curtain) or Sunday afternoon (2 p.m. curtain) between now and September 28 and see Latino Theatre Projects’ production of Ariel Dorfman’s Death and
Fernando Luna, left, and Tonya Andrews in Death and the Maiden
Sony Pictures Classics
Michael Brunk
by Doug Hamilton SGN Contributing Writer
Alfred Molina (l) and John Lithgow in Love is Strange
by Sara Michelle Fetters SGN A&E Writer LOVE IS STRANGE HARVARD EXIT Opening September 12
Love is Strange is a charming, bittersweet drama that enchants even when it is breaking your heart in two. The story of two elderly New Yorkers, high school music teacher George (Alfred Molina) and renowned painter Ben (John Lithgow), who finally marry after 39 years lying within one another’s arms, the movie is a quietly profound aria to love, loss, family see Maiden page 6 and unforeseen traumas that is as
eloquent as it is profound. It moves to its own rhythms and designs, never rushing things, yet hardly slow, the film’s 94 minutes over almost as soon as they begin. Things start in a euphoric manner, George and Ben’s nuptials leading to a day of celebration too long in coming. But the Catholic School where the former works isn’t as happy, and although they’ve known George was Gay for the entirety of his tenure, the fact he’s finally made it legal doesn’t sit well with the institution, the beloved educator suddenly given his walking papers. Unable to afford their lavish see Love page 8