10 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE September 21, 2001 r
eveningsout
'Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will'
The Theater of Tony Kushner Living Past Hope by James Fisher Routledge, hardcover
Reviewed by Kaizaad Kotwal
James Fisher, one of the most prolific theater scholars and authors around, has just published his assessment of the entire works of Tony Kushner, one of the most influential and prolific playwrights of the contemporary American stage.
It is true that while Kushner came to national and international prominence with his two part drama Angels in America, he had been working in the medium long before that spotlight was focused on him.
Kushner's Angels was groundbreaking for several reasons. First and foremost, it was a major work of American drama to deal openly and honestly with issues most people would rather keep buried. His candid and frank discussion of sexuality, AIDS and religion were explosive and thought-provoking. Moreover, his open assault on the Reagan era spoke to and for the many people who had
been silenced during that age of American politics. It was astonishing how eager people seemed to lap up Kushner's acerbic attack on Reaganism and McCarthyism, particularly in an entertainment era which favored mindnumbing fluff over mind-changing wisdom and introspection.
Kushner's opus was also a stunning accomplishment because audiences wanted to see both parts of the play, which together lasted over seven hours of viewing time-in an MTV age when sound bites have destroyed the attention spans of contemporary audiences.
Angels In America is an important work at many, many levels-theatrically, politically, socially, culturally, demographically, historically, morally and personally.
Such brilliance and relevance doesn't emerge out of a vacuum, and doesn't blaze onto the scene without a lot of prior work, experimentation, curiosity and artistic chutzpah. James Fisher understands this all too well and in his book, The Theater of Tony Kushner: Living Past Hope, he leads the readers through a critical and coherent evaluation of all of Kushner's works.
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Fisher's method to evaluate Kushner's oeuvre is to examine these complex and pertinent works under the lens of an overarching paradigm which melds religion with politics, sexuality with morality, culture with economics and thematic concerns with aesthetic ones. Fisher's research is exhaustive and his assessment is thorough, telling and tacit.
If there is one palpable raison d'etre in Kushner's work, it is his progressive politics, and if there is a singular, common thread that weaves through his theatrical tapestries it is his sense of humanity.
The subtitle of Fisher's book is a reference to a speech by Prior Walters in "Perestroika," the secondinstallment of Angels in America. Prior says, "We live past hope." For Fisher, "This line, more than any other in Kushner's oeuvre, captures the intent of his drama: a belief that despite centuries of historical and personal tragedy, we must progressively face the inevitabilities of a future we cannot know while...learning from an
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often tragic and destructive past Tony Kushner, left, with James Fisher. we know only too well."
Fisher's book places this playwright in the larger context of American theater and in the even greater arena of world theater. For Fisher, and many others, Kushner's parallels to greats like George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill and other luminaries, are not overblown nor are they inappropriate. Fisher astutely assesses the connections to and influences of these great writers on Kushner and his work. And yet, Fisher concludes that, in many ways, Kushner has taken theater even beyond what those auteurs had intended.
This book is a must for anyone interested in the theater and for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of Kushner, the man and the writer. While Fisher's research is exhaustive and his analysis deep and probing, his work is accessible and enjoyable. Fisher is that rare scholar whose work is meaningful yet doesn't intentionally confound its readers in an attempt to appear legitimate.
Jeffrey Mostade, PCC, NCC
In addition to the detailed and deliberate analysis of Kushner's writings, Fisher provides the reader with a brief biography of the playwright (which greatly helps to understand his works) and a complete production history of all of Kushner's plays.
Fisher concludes his book with the same hope that dwells in the title. This time the hope is for what Kushner will offer us in the future through his writing, his person and his politics. Fisher writes that, “As a new century begins, Kushner continues to be guided by a 'pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will,' a mantra encouraging him in his work as a dramatist and political activist.
He continues to focus his thinking on the problems of the past that follow us into the future, and to do so with a battered hope and the realization that, as he has said about the evolution of attitudes about gays in recent decades, 'so much has changed in such an incredibly short time.' "
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