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PARTISAN REVIEW
then-President Ronald Reagan, Kushner also pokes fun at some of the
leftist antics of the other characters. The lib-lab and nonstop perambula–
tions, pieties and guilt, for instance, of the Jewish lover who callously
leaves his WASP friend to die alone, are put down admirably by the black
male nurse in drag.
To be honest, I
was
shocked a few times. For I still believe that some
things, such as anal intercourse (whatever the participants' sexual orienta–
tion), the intimate processes of hospital procedures, and dying, are private
matters; and I didn't quite understand the applause at what primarily
should have been moving experiences to the intellectual, gay couple who
sat behind me. To admit such a retrograde attitude, and to refer to taste,
will brand me a conservative and a prude. Should I plead here that just
like one of the characters in the play, "I too am allowed a bit of political
incorrectness"? I don't think I need to. Instead, I believe that even in our
so-called postmodem age we might leave some things unsaid and some
experiences off-limits - if only to spark the imagination of the audience to
introspection rather than raucous laughter, to admire the sensibility of a
performance rather than its light and sound effects. These effects, by the
way, were shocking and stunning in their own way.
(I
can't help but
draw a parallel between the allusive treatment of child abuse and prostitu–
tion in the recent Italian film
It ladro dei bambini
and the vulgar takes on
the theme in the various Amy Fisher spectaculars: the former sensitive,
insightful comment on our culture will remain a classic whereas the latter,
a manifestation of our culture's appetite for shock and scandal, will soon
be forgotten.)
Yes, in the past the bourgeoisie would have gotten "epateed." By
now, however, the amalgam between art and entertainment is total, and
the bourgeoisie has become inured to shock: it takes
all
performances
in
stride, wears its leftist credentials on its sleeve, and expresses their approval
of them in resounding applause. Its members probably made up most of the
other twenty-five percent of the
Angels
audience, to judge by the stretch
limousines that were waiting on Forty-eighth Street after the performance.
E.1t
