SEASONS OF LOVE AND DESPERATION: THE DISMANTLING AND ASSEMBLING OF RELATIONSHIPS IN ANGELS IN AMERICA AND RENT

Resumo

The aim of this article is to draw a comparison between two North-American plays that are set in New York at the end of the twentieth century – Tony Kushner’s Angels in America, in the eighties, and Jonathan Larson’s Rent, in the nineties – in order to look at the way through which the different, changing attitudes towards Aids affected the relationship between the characters, as they became fragmented and/ or solidified. The article also sheds light on the impact of the rise of Aids in the gay community and the winding road towards visibility and acceptance not just from society, but also one’s own.