SOURCE: Smith, Matthew Wilson. “Angels in America: A Progressive Apocalypse.” Theater 29, no. 3 (1999): 152-65.

In the following essay, Smith examines the conflict between apocalyptic and progressive impulses in Angels in America.

I. Apocalypse Descending

Outside of Chekhov, I can think of no playwright whose characters philosophize so much about history as Tony Kushner's do; Kushner's characters are forever musing upon, arguing about, engaging with history. But while in Chekhov's plays such philosophizing talk is generally just that—talk, mere talk—in Kushner's it is urgent, of the essence. Which is to say that, for Kushner, talking about history functions not as a screen behind which the real but unstated (largely private, domestic) drama takes place, but rather is the “real drama,” in surface and subtext. When Kushner's characters wonder, as they often do, whether the world is coming to an end, whether humanity has ceased to progress, whether a...