ANGELS IN AMERICA
Edinburgh International Festival
★★★★
“As scenes melt over one another, actors bask in the glory of silence and the heated majesty of the play’s overlapping tensions”
Angels in America at the Edinburgh International Festival by Internationaal Theater Amsterdam is a miraculous production of Kushner’s magnum opus. Sprawling between the lives of characters contending with the AIDS crisis, politics of race, religion, and Reagan’s America, this Dutch translated performance buries deeply under the skin.
It is a rare treat to enjoy both parts of Angels in America in one sitting. Millennium Approaches digs deeply into its characterisation and beckons the audience to headfirst into fiery paranoia and radical storytelling. Perestroika offers, somehow, an even more compelling and electric conclusion, packed with gut-punches and blaze from every angle.
Admittedly, the placement of subtitle screens and attention-demanding action feels difficult to sink into, even as someone familiar with the plot and text. However, the production’s skill leads those familiar with the show into the groove of contending with Kushner’s gymnastic dialogue in another language. Though, I can imagine it being tough for some non-Dutch speakers who are unfamiliar with the text to get smoothly stuck into the show.
Soundtracked to Bowie, the sound design of the show creates brilliantly unique moments. ‘We Can Be Heroes’ and some selections from Bowie’s self-epitaph ‘Blackstar’ album make for the most impactful moments, adding an even darker humour and constructing a distinct sound world around the play. For the most part, the vision of a Bowie-centric soundscape pays off. Some Bowie songs do feel overused or incongruously loud, especially in Millenium Approaches. The lack of set and props, aside from a sound system, pulls the music closer into the action, and creates a striking emptiness which swallows a fracturing 1980s New York around it.
Although effective for many (more comedic) moments, the lack of props occasionally pulls the performance down, where visuals with books, paper, or telephones could be even stronger. I feel very split on the use of hand gestures over props to Costuming feels authentic but unfortunately half-baked- fully immersive one moment and leaving it up to the audience’s imagination the next. On balance, this is perhaps an allusion to the collapsing of the world around the characters, of a reality “falling apart”; but it feels half-realised. The effectiveness of projection gains momentum throughout the production. Starting with floods of shadowy businessmen in suits, and eventually progressing to angel monument and pastoral images, some projections work better than others to add a haunting texture to the minimalist staging.
Directed masterfully by Ivo van Hove, the cast are phenomenally sharp. As scenes melt over one another, actors bask in the glory of silence and the heated majesty of the play’s overlapping tensions. Jesse Mensah, playing Belize and Mr Lies, is a particularly engaging presence across the almost five-hour production, bringing even the most hallucinogenic tableaus into tender subdual. Prior, played by Eelco Smits also undertakes his role with standout charisma and poignance. Both Smits and have undeniable chemistry and comedic timing, eliciting laughs one moment and bolts of devastation the next. Often shining opposite Smits, Eefje Paddenburg, breathes a brilliant life into the character of Valium-addicted Harper, bringing a razor-sharp detail to the role and eliciting goosebumps across the language barrier.
Krisjan Schellingerhout is a moving Joe Pitt, offering a stellar performance packed with range as the character’s world ruptures around him. Frequently playing opposite Schellingerhout as Louis, Minne Koole, carries an aptly layered portrayal of the character tormented by his own betrayals.
Hans Kesting displays talented physicality and unshakeable ferocity across the marathon performance as merciless lawyer, Roy Cohn. Marieke Heebink has excellent chemistry with the ensemble as a multi-rolling actress, selling each character with an assured talent that lets the audience know it’s time to pay attention to what she is about to bring to the stage. Felix Schellekens, playing angel and nurse, rounds the cast off exceedingly well, with a superb duality of physicality and characterisation that offers electrically surreal theatre. As the angel “visits” Prior, madcap interactions are brilliantly executed with flare and creative thought.
Sizzling with knife-edge acting, this stripped back and precise, yet epic, performance of Angels in America will undoubtedly leave you wanting more, regardless of how long you have already been sat in the theatre.
ANGELS IN AMERICA
King’s Theatre | Edinburgh International Festival
Reviewed on 20th August 2026
by Molly Knox
Photography by Jess Shurte
