Theatre review: Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens

It seems to be revived frequently enough but I hadn’t got round to seeing Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens until the Union’s current production by Bryan Hodgson. Bill Russell (book and lyrics) and Janet Hood’s (music) musical is described as a “song cycle,” although I’d put it much more firmly in “play with songs” territory – the musical numbers only occasionally interrupt what is for the main part a series of monologues by the dead. The show dates from 1989 but has apparently been regularly revised since because its subject matter hasn’t become as irrelevant as many think. That subject is of course HIV/AIDS, and the play takes its inspiration from the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt that was made in response to the fact that, at the time, the official response to victims remained to sweep them under the carpet. The quilt was (and is, as it continues to be added to,) an attempt by loved ones not just to record the names of those lost, but to reflect something of each unique personality as well.

And so Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens does the same – literally in Justin Williams’ design, which has the actors lay out quilt panels on the stage one by one.

Another actor then stands behind the panel to bring us the person it represents, usually with the story of how they contracted the virus and how they died of it, but many of them more concerned, as is only right, with giving us a flavour of who they were in life, not just in death. Russell’s monologues are in verse, sometimes blank, sometimes in rhyming couplets, the latter in particular being something that easily gets on my nerves so there’s a wide variety in quality from one monologue to the next. Perhaps inevitably it’s the punks and raging queens who are more interesting characters than those presented as angels.

In all the death and despair there are of course brighter moments with those characters determined to be big personalities to the end – like Rhys Taylor’s flamboyant Act II opener. But it’s the more shocking stories that stand out, beginning with Calum Gulvin’s serial killer, who responds to his diagnosis by deliberately infecting dozens of other men. Jackie Pulford’s Midwestern housewife sees her whole family taken down by the disease after her haemophiliac husband gets an infected transfusion, before succumbing herself. Jade Chaston’s high-flying businesswoman gets a comparatively easy ride from her company, but only her secretary keeps visiting her right to the end – only to get unceremoniously fired as soon as her boss is dead. With the play aiming to still have relevance in the present day it starts to feel a bit too Western, ignoring the continuing devastation in Africa, but we do at least eventually get Althea Burey’s Nonkosi, a South African infected by an abusive husband before facing less than no help from the government.

The songs diverge from the spoken segments in that they’re from the point of view of the survivors left behind, with Aidan Harkins and Ailsa Davidson’s performances the ones that stand out. With a large cast, the conceit of having everyone sit around the stage listening to each other’s stories does occasionally leave them looking unsure what to do with themselves, and there’s an awkwardness to the moments when they silently act out parts of other characters’ stories. As one of the earliest theatrical responses to HIV/AIDS Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is something of a blunt instrument, and it’s undoubtedly been done better since, but in amongst a very American kind of sentimentality there’s still several moments capable of packing a punch.

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens by Bill Russell and Janet Hood is booking until the 8th of June at the Union Theatre.

Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes including interval.

Photo credit: Mark Senior.