The Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play, "Angels in America," focuses on the lives of two couples as they struggle through issues common during the 1980's; homosexuality, politics, AIDS, and religion. The relationship between Louis Ironson, a Jewish homosexual and his lover Prior Walter, begins to suffer after Prior reveals to Louis that he has AIDS. Joe Pitt, a republican lawyer and his wife Harper, a woman with emotional issues that is addicted to Valium, are a married Mormon couple struggling with the realization of Joe's sexuality. As Joe comes to terms with his homosexuality and Louis deserts Prior during his time of need, the two couples become intertwined through Joe and Louis's affair. .
The other characters in the play are Belize, an African American homosexual nurse and Roy Cohn, a famous New York attorney and closeted homosexual. They are soon sucked into the mellow-drama of the couples' lives and as they become involved and begin to influence the couples, the novel begins to traces their lives as well. Change is a major theme within the play as it acts as a problem in some way for the characters and as the characters work through their problems or changes, they ultimately are changed. .
Although change can be seen through each character within the play, the changes that the character, Harper, Joe's wife, endures are some of the most unique and drastic. Her changes are different from the other characters because they are both real and imaginary. She experiences imaginary changes in setting, health, and position in life. These changes are created out of her addiction to Valium which she takes to cope with the loneliness she feels within her marriage. Harper's "visit " to Antarctica is one of the most drastic imaginary changes in setting within the novel, "Antarctica, Antarctica, oh boy oh boy, LOOK at this, I.Wow, I must've really snapped the tether, huh?" (Kushner 107).
