World of the Play

Angels in America Part I: Millennium Approaches takes place in New York City over several months, from the last weeks of October 1985 to the first weeks of January 1986, around the time of Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. In the New York City of the mid-1980s, the twin towers still formed a recognizable part of the skyline and Times Square had yet to receive the massive infusion of capital that would make it the prime tourist destination it is today. Frontpage headlines of The New York Times alternated between the spread of Communism in Sovietallied countries, the Reagan administration’s activities at home and abroad, and the wide range of issues surrounding the growing AIDS crisis (at the time not yet formally acknowledged by Reagan). The disparity existing between the rich and the poor was as alarming as it is now, defense spending sent the federal budget into the largest deficit in American history, and tax rates for the wealthiest Americans were at an historical low. What Ronald Reagan heralded as a new era of freedom and prosperity was, for many, a time of struggle and despair. While all of the political exigencies of the 1980s influence the play, the AIDS crisis of the 1980s is an important historical touchstone for Millennium Approaches. There are few social issues of this period which demonstrate the fanatical bigotry of the right and the extreme compassion (and its limits) of the left as did the politics behind the AIDS epidemic. While conservative religious and political leaders were denouncing AIDS as a justifiable punishment for homosexuals and drug abusers, grass roots movements in San Francisco and New York were creating health care and hospice support networks for AIDS patients. When the ultra-conservative Reagan administration reduced funding for AIDS research despite rising death tolls, individual efforts by non-profit organizations to raise money for research increased dramatically. The reactions to the AIDS crisis, like the anti-nuke demonstrations of 1983 and the demonstrations against the economic crisis in 1981, revealed a society deeply divided in its political and moral foundations.

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