Tony Kushner combines realism and the supernatural in his gay fantasia about community, identity and migration in the late 20th century. Consisting of two parts that add up to approximately eight hours running time, Angels in America has the scope of a great American novel. It is intensely political whilst focusing on the effect of AIDS on the gay community in the 1980s and the passivity of society and the political forces. Reagan only acknowledged the severity of the epidemic when his long-time friend Rock Hudson died of AIDS.

Courtesy of Helen Maybanks.