Angels In America – Full Synopsis

Angels in America focuses on the stories of two troubled couples, one gay, one straight: Louis Ironson and Prior Walter, and Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and his wife Harper. After the funeral of Louis’s grandmother, Prior tells him that he has contracted AIDS, and Louis panics, realizing he cannot stand the strain and fear. Meanwhile, Joe is offered a job in the Justice Department by Roy Cohn, his right-wing, bigoted mentor and friend. But Harper, who is addicted to Valium and suffers anxiety and hallucinations, does not want to move to Washington.

The two couples’ fates quickly become intertwined: Harper and Prior meet, in a fantastical mutual dream sequence in which Prior, operating on the “threshold of revelation,” reveals to Harper that her husband is a closeted homosexual. Louis then leaves Prior in a fevered state, which causes Prior to begin hallucinating that he hears the voice of an angel telling him that he is a prophet. Harper confronts Joe about his homosexuality, which he denies but says he has struggled inwardly with the issue. Roy receives a different kind of surprise: At an appointment with his doctor Henry, he learns that he too has been diagnosed with AIDS. But Roy, who considers gay men weak and ineffectual, thunders that he has nothing in common with them—AIDS is a disease of homosexuals, whereas he has “liver cancer.” Henry, disgusted, urges him to use his clout to obtain an experimental AIDS drug. The ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who Roy helped convict, appears at his bedside.

Prior’s illness and Harper’s terrors both grow worse. Fortunately, Prior has a reliable caretaker in Belize, an ex-drag queen and dear friend. Prior confesses to Belize that he has been hearing a wonderful and mysterious voice; Belize is skeptical, but once he leaves we hear the voice speak to Prior, telling him she is a messenger who will soon arrive for him. Joe drunkenly telephones his mother Hannah in Salt Lake City to tell her that he is a homosexual, but Hannah tells him he is being ridiculous. Louis strays from Prior’s bedside to seek anonymous sex in Central Park at night, where he meets and later goes home with Joe. Hannah arrives in New York to find and help Joe, but she gets lost and is confronted by a homeless woman. In a tense scene, Joe tells Harper about his feelings, while simultaneously Louis tells Prior he is moving out.

The disconsolate Prior is awakened one night by the ghosts of two ancestors who tell him they have come to prepare the way for the unseen messenger. Tormented by such supernatural appearances and by his anguish over Louis, Prior becomes increasingly desperate. In the climax of Act One, Prior’s prophetic visions culminate in the appearance of an imposing and beautiful Angel who crashes through the roof of his apartment and proclaims, “The Great Work begins.”

In Act Two, after her dramatic arrival, the Angel gives Prior a prophetic book and explains that she seeks his help to halt the migratory tendency of human beings, which the Angels in Heaven believe tempted God to abandon them. God, she explains, left Heaven forever on the day of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, and since then his Angels—whose vast powers are fueled by constant sexual activity—have been rudderless and alone. To reverse the trend, the Angel says humans must end their constant motion, their addiction to change. Not surprisingly, Prior is aghast at her words and vows to flee from her at all costs.

With Joe nowhere to be found, Hannah comes to Harper’s rescue in the depths of depression. She finally insists that Harper join her at the Mormon Visitor’s Center, where she has begun to volunteer. Roy learns that his political opponents plan to disbar him for an ethical lapse, but he vows to remain a lawyer until he dies. Ethel comes to observe him in his misery, and sings the Kaddish while Roy dies. Joe’s wife, on the other hand, spends her days at the Mormon Visitor’s Center watching a diorama of the Mormon migration featuring a father dummy who looks suspiciously like Joe. When Prior drops in to conduct research on angels, a fantasy sequence ensues in which Louis and Joe appear in the diorama.

Prior suffers an episode at the visitor’s center, where the Angel descends and Prior wrestles her. He succeeds, and is granted entry into Heaven to refuse his prophecy. In Heaven, which resembles San Francisco after the great earthquake, Prior tells the Angels that despite all his suffering he wants them to bless him and give him more life. The Angels sympathize but say they cannot halt the plague. He tells them should God return, they should sue Him for abandonment.

In 1990, four years later, Louis, Prior, Belize and Hannah appear in a moving epilogue. Prior says that the disease has killed many but that he intends to live on, and that the “Great Work” will continue.