Two fast-paced, highly emotive and relevant dramas are about to unfold on the Oxford Playhouse stage from tonight as Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Medea pan out over the next two weeks.
University of Oxford students are bringing the two classics to fruition, starting tonight as Happier Year Productions opens Tony Kushner’s ‘Angels in America: Millennium Approaches’, a complex exploration of homosexuality, love, and loss during the American AIDS epidemic of the 80s.
‘come and join us for a night of heartbreak, dark comedy, revelations and relationships’
Director Andrew Raynes said: ‘Not only is the play a moving and complex exploration of queerness and life on the fringes of American society, it also considers those right at the centre of it; the most conformist, powerful characters who are treated equally with the weakest and most vulnerable – as the delineations between those roles are blurred.”
It depicts Prior Walter – a gay man with AIDS – and Harper Pitt (a neurotic Mormon housewife suffering from hallucinations) as tension builds, secrets abound and sexuality is questioned in the pressure cooker of an increasingly conservative and intolerant America.
“tension builds, secrets abound and sexuality is questioned”
Grace Gordon, playing Harper, said: “Angels in America is both fabulously tragic and deeply human. It feels like Kushner’s ode to the queer community, and captures the essence of a time when, for many people, it felt like the world was coming to an end. So come and join us for a night of heartbreak, dark comedy, revelations and relationships.”
Angels in America: Millennium Approaches runs from Nov 1-4 at Oxford Playhouse BOOK HERE
Then it’s the turn of The Oxford Greek Play, a student run event that only happens every three years, featuring Euripides’ Medea from Wed 8 Nov – Fri 10 Nov.
It asks what drives a mother to kill her own children and how a victimised woman can turn into a passionate and scheming avenger, as Medea deserted by her husband Jason and a stranger in a foreign land is cast into exile by King Creon of Corinth. Fatally granted one more day to stay, she enacts deadly vengeance that shocks all who witness it.
Director Halah Irvine says: “The controversy surrounding Medea still rings true today. The play highlights the injustices towards women and immigrants that has permeated history and is as thrilling and thought provoking as it was 2000 years ago.”
Performed in the original ancient-Greek, with a new English translation alongside. Medea runs from Wed 8 Nov – Fri 10 Nov at Oxford Playhouse. BOOK HERE
