Review: Angels in America

This year, the National Theatre are staging a revival of Tony Kushner's two-part epic Angels in America. At just shy of eight hours long, it's difficult, if not 'impossible' to put on, so it is a rare treat to be able to see it in its entirety.
The National say:

America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell.

And?

I have never seen anything like it.

Angels in America, especially watched in one day as a double bill, is a huge theatrical feat. The cast are unreal - Andrew Garfield, Denise Gough, Nathan Lane, James McArdle, Russell Tovey, et al - the stage design works on an epic scale, and Kushner's writing is incredible.

There are a lot of things one could choose to talk about with Angels in America, so I'm going to try to limit myself to mentioning a few highlights:

1. Andrew Garfield was a revelation: I have only previously seen him in bit parts and Spiderman, so the fact that he can really, really act, came as a shock. A pleasant one.
2. The wings of the Angel, which were created by a combination of physical choreography and puppetry, were a delightful bit of design/movement work.
3. Kushner's writing of convoluted, rambling monologues is masterful. The characters of Roy (Nathan Lane) and Louis (James McArdle) get very different speeches, but the delivery of Kushner's words by the respective actors was edge-of-seat brilliant.
4. Ian MacNeil's design work and Paule Constable's lighting designs were on a scale wholly appropriate to the magnitude of the text. When the National go all out at set design, they go all out at set design.

Really, I could go on and on.

I cannot recommend Angels in America highly enough. Especially if you can see the double bill. It is unlikely you'll ever get to see the like of this again, so do what you need to do to get a ticket!

5/5: A once-in-a-generation spectacle
The National Theatre
Until 19th August