Of Gods And Men: Gary Abrahams On Angels In America And Humanising HIV Narratives

There is a great sense of horror at the end of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, at the overwhelming loss of life, love and happiness. A semi-autobiographical account of his co-founding HIV advocacy group the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York, it premiered in 1985 at the height of the crisis in the US. President Ronald Reagan's administration and big pharma companies dragged their heels as so many fought for survival.

Coming six years later, Tony Kushner's two-part epic Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes, also howled for justice, but was a very different beast, says Gary Abrahams, director of a new production staged at Melbourne's Fortyfivedownstairs over a quarter of a century later.

"Whereas The Normal Heart was more of a docu-drama, Angels... took a much more poetic turn," he argues. "When drama started, with the Greeks, conversations between mortals and the gods were par for the course. As society advanced, that fell away, but Angels… was one of the first contemporary works to bring that back."

It was also a vision filled with hope despite the grim odds. Prior Walter (Grant Cartwright), a New York City WASP, may have been abandoned by his Jewish lover Louis Ironson (Simon Corfield), but he's soon visited by The Angel (Margaret Mills returning to the role she inhabited for one of the first Australian productions, staged by MTC back in 1994). Sure, heaven is in disarray, god has left the building and the message conveyed is thoroughly confusing, but it fundamentally rewrote the tragic narrative of HIV-positive men.

"The fact that your main protagonist is an HIV-positive gay man and he was the one who was granted access to heaven, the sort of Jesus-like status of being a prophet, I think that was really startling," Abraham says. "And in some perverse, subversive way, it also humanised him and his status."

This tackling of religious symbolism, illuminating naturalism with bursts of magical realism, also marked Angels... out as something quite remarkable, as does its "high-octane sexuality". Authenticity was vital for Abrahams when it came to capturing that erotic charge animating Kushner's masterpiece. "One of the things that I was very keen to make sure of when putting it together, was the casting of actors who identify as queer because I'm fucking sick of seeing straight actors playing gay men. I know actors can play anything, it's not about that argument, but when it comes to the sex, there's always a slight level of uncomfortability when heterosexual men are pashing on."

Abrahams feels an incredible pressure to get it right. Not just because the much-loved text, adapted for TV by HBO and recently staged by the National Theatre in London starring Andrew Garfield and Russell Tovey, demonstrates a "mastery of storytelling that is very rare and has sustained its place in the contemporary canon".

As a closeted 18-year-old growing up at the end of apartheid in Johannesburg, this vibrant validation of gay male relationships was a revelation. "It was the first encounter I ever had, as a young man, with a positive representation of gay characters in charge of their own destiny and who were free to express their love," he says. "Even though it's a very tragic play and they do terrible things to each other, that had a profound effect on me."

The human foibles at the heart of the characters give the play life, he argues. "They are all flawed people who behave in illogical, self-destructive ways and I think we can all relate to that."

Without the National Theatre's budget, Abraham and set and costume designer Dann Barber had to get creative, drawing on another seminal queer text, Jennie Livingston's 1990 documentary film Paris Is Burning. "We took our design impulse from that very underground, self-made magic of those drag balls. Putting on such a big show on an independent budget was always going to be a massive challenge and that's how we resolved it."

Angels... may have changed the narrative, and living with HIV is no longer a death sentence, but Abrahams says the spectre of Reaganism has returned to haunt us. "It's still so fucking topical when you look at the conservative politics sweeping the world at the moment. The play ends on such a hopeful note and life was really hopeful for a while. It felt like the Left were winning... and then suddenly it feels like everything has done a complete backflip. We're back at square one with the fucking postal vote. It just feels like this isn't a period piece. This could have been written yesterday. It's vital and immediate."

Cameron Lukey and Dirty Pretty Theatre presents Angels In America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches and Part 2: Perestroika, 1 — 24 Sep at Fortyfivedownstairs.