Angels in America...the German Edition

By Elisa Torner, Julian Blöcher, & Jens Kettner 

Adaptation:

As we approached our group project we decided to update Tony Kushner’s 1992 play “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” as a whole. We based our decision on the fact that this play contains several interesting themes, characters and conflicts evolving between them. Therefore, we made the following changes to, what we thought, would conserve and carry the central conflicts to a German audience in 2013.

As a first step we chose Munich as the place where all the action takes place.

Our first major adaption to the main characters concerned their profession. Instead of representing them as lawyers we chose to make them professional soccer players. As the play is situated in Munich, Roy, Joe and Louis are all members of the highly regarded soccer team of Bayern Munich.

Roy
He is the most regarded soccer player of Bayern Munich and captain of the team. He is also a closeted homosexual.

Joe
Joe also plays in the first team. However, he is not as successful as Roy, and mostly he is only a substitute player. He is the child of Turkish immigrants but was born in Germany. He is a Muslim and very religious. Although he is married to Harper, he as well is a closeted homosexual.

Harper
Joe’s wife. Like him, she has Turkish roots and is Muslim. She does not work – due to Joe’s high income she does not feel the need to get herself a job. Whereas Joe is often surrounded by other women (mainly fans/groupies) she does not get along in Munich as well, especially not with the wives of the other soccer players as they are all German and do not get along with her religious habits, her clothing etc.

Louis
He is the coach of the amateur team (farm team) of Bayern Munich. In the upcoming season; that also marks the beginning of the play; he will become assistant coach of the Bundesliga team. As in the original play he is homosexual, but due to the nature and environment of his job he is closeted.

Prior
Louis’ boyfriend and not involved in the world of sports. He works as an indoor designer for apartments and made acquaintance with Louis when decorating his loft.

Analysis:

As the original play takes place in New York City we thought of a place that would somehow live up to it in terms of local, national and international focus. Secondly we thought of a place that would allow us to present the play to a wide audience. Soccer is a highly regarded sport, and no other team in German soccer polarizes more than Bayern Munich. Therefore, we chose Munich as the place of action.

We decided to place our version of “Angels in America” in the world of professional soccer because on the one hand it is an ultimately present and hotly discussed branch of sports (just as baseball is in the U.S.). On the other hand it is also one of the most stuck and unchangeable regarding its values and expectations. Soccer players are seen as kind of “super-heroes” in the eyes of the public because it is a sport that connects well with working class people and their desires and therefore makes it easy for the public to identify with. Soccer players are usually meant to be “proper men” with good-looking girlfriends, preferably of model profession, who shall symbolize hope and identity for a whole nation.

As far as the characters are concerned we decided not to present them as lawyers. We refused to go along with that profession because in Germany these days counseling is not as much dominated by men as it was the case in America in the 1980’s. Another factor was due to our impression that German society has accepted homosexuals in most professions. Major exceptions are probably sports and the military. Hence, by turning them into soccer-players, the conflict of being homosexual in a very manly dominated field is full of potential for the unfolding of the character’s conflicts.

In our version of the play especially Roy is the one who is outwardly representing the publicly created image of “the football-star” but is inwardly suffering a severe struggle in confessing to his “real” desires. We imagined it to be even harder for somebody being a person of public interest to define his/her private-self, because society has a strong impact on those people's lives. If you make mistakes, not only your family, neighbors and acquaintances will become aware of them, but the whole nation will see you as a representative part of it. Not being able to live up to the expectations of others does not only bear the danger of becoming a “fallen leader”, it might even turn you into a “public enemy” if you, although maybe unwillingly, insult the public's expectations.

Regarding the character of Joe we already know that he as well is homosexual. In addition to his struggle with finding his true sexual orientation we wanted him to enter a totally new sphere regarding obedience versus self in connection to religion. By making him of Muslim faith, plurality in today's German society will be depicted more realistically, also because a lot German football-players are immigrants. A homosexual soccer player trying to follow the rules of Islam bears great potential for transferring his lack of identity and struggles in life. He is expected to follow strict rules to be acknowledged in Muslim society but eventually fails completely in living a life that is dedicated to rules of others and gives in to a “sinful” life. This on one hand takes a lot of pressure from him as he now feels free to unfold his real personality but on the other hand it makes him a hunted and disregarded figure in public.

The character of Harper is one of constant indisposition in our version of the play. She shows what enormous burden religious difference can be. She is not acknowledged by Western society for religious reasons. She eventually goes mad because on the one hand she is unable to handle the aggressive approaches of other women towards Joe, on the other hand she cannot handle Joe’s fame. Actually Harper is the only one in our Adaptation who has the chance to retreat into privacy although she does not actively seek to do so. Making up an imaginary world is her “anchor” to resist the destructive stream “the public” embodies around her. At this point we want to add the fact that we did not like the thought of her being a drug addict since this is strongly against the values of Muslim faith.

We also changed Joe and Harper‘s religious backgrounds. In respect to their Turkish heritage we acknowledged their Islamic faith, instead of being Mormon. In addition, Mormonism is an American faith which is hardly to be found in Germany and therefore not representative.

Regarding the character of Louis we wanted him to be part of the world of soccer as well. That is because we intended the relationship between him and Joe unfolding in this “gay- hostile” environment.

Prior does not play as big of a role as the original one. We chose the profession of indoor designer because a drag queen would have been too obvious and his relationship with Louis should be kept secret since Louis is a “public face”. At this point we would like to point out that, in order the play to develop to its fullest; we found it not necessary for anybody suffering from AIDS.

As said before, we actively decided to let the storyline run as originally set by Kushner only under the awareness of a different environment of encounter. Tensions grow while seemingly thousands of people are watching - spectatorship “par excellence”. The sensationalist mass becomes just another silently destructing power within fear, anger and despair which are the predominant feelings in this play. Living a “normal” life is just as unimaginable for our characters as a “life in the spotlight” might be for us.