Once again, the Mercyhurst Institute for Arts and Culture is showing a performance from National Theatre Live.
The performance is “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.”
It is a two-part series.
Unfortunately, the second part will not make much sense without watching the first part.
The first part is “Millennium Approaches,” and the second is “Perestroika.”
The first part was shown on Sept. 10, while the second part will air this Sunday in the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center.
Part 2 will start promptly at 12:55 p.m. with doors opening at around 12:25 p.m.
It will have a run time of three and half hours with two possible fifteen-minute intermissions.
Even though it’s called National Theatre Live, it isn’t actually live — it’s an encore baby.
“Angels in America” is written by Tony Kushner, an American playwright and screenwriter.
Kushner is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993.
This play is set in New York City during the mid-1980s.
During this time, the city was dealing with the AIDS epidemic and a conservative Reagan administration in the Oval Office.
The citizens of the city cannot get ahead because of the crisis.
The play is a true drama dealing with dying from the disease, and how love and sex is affected by the disease.
Naturally with a play dealing with AIDS, it has a lot of homosexual undertones as well as the overall main plot.
Marianne Elliott directed both parts of the play.
The talented Andrew Garfield plays Prior Walter. The rest of the cast includes Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle and Russell Tovey.
As always, tickets are free for Mercyhurst students, $18 for adults, $15 for seniors and students of other institutions, and $10 for youth.