Angels in America by Tony Kushner Page A

Washington.
    JOE : I just can’t, Roy. She needs me.
    ROY : Listen, Joe. I’m the best divorce lawyer in the business.
    (Little pause.)
    JOE : Can’t Washington wait?
    ROY : You do what you need to do, Joe. What you need. You . Let her life go where it wants to go. You’ll both be better for that. Somebody should get what they want.
    MAN : What do you want?
    LOUIS : I want you to fuck me, hurt me, make me bleed.
    MAN : I want to.
    LOUIS : Yeah?
    MAN : I want to hurt you.
    LOUIS : Fuck me.
    MAN : Yeah?
    LOUIS : Hard.
    MAN : Yeah? You been a bad boy?
    (Pause. Louis laughs, softly.)
    LOUIS : Very bad. Very bad.
    MAN : You need to be punished, boy?
    LOUIS : Yes. I do.
    MAN : Yes what?
    (Little pause.)
    LOUIS : Um, I . . .
    MAN : Yes what , boy?
    LOUIS : Oh. Yes sir.
    MAN : I want you to take me to your place, boy.
    LOUIS : No, I can’t do that.
    MAN : No what ?
    LOUIS : No sir, I can’t, I—
    Â Â Â Â Â  I don’t live alone, sir.
    MAN : Your lover know you’re out with a man tonight, boy?
    LOUIS : No sir, he—
    Â Â Â Â Â  My lover doesn’t know.
    MAN : Your lover know you—
    LOUIS : Let’s change the subject, OK? Can we go to your place?
    MAN : I live with my parents.
    LOUIS : Oh.
    ROY : Everyone who makes it in this world makes it because somebody older and more powerful takes an interest. The most precious asset in life, I think, is the ability to be a good son. You have that, Joe. Somebody who can be a good son to a father who pushes them farther than they would otherwise go. I’ve had many fathers, I owe my life to them, powerful, powerful men. Walter Winchell, Edgar Hoover. Joe McCarthy most of all. He valued me because I am a good lawyer, but he loved me because I was and am a good son. He was a very difficult man, very guarded and cagey; I brought out something tender in him. He would have died for me. And me for him. Does this embarrass you?
    JOE : I had a hard time with my father.
    ROY : Well sometimes that’s the way. Then you have to find other fathers, substitutes, I don’t know. The father-son relationship is central to life. Women are for birth, beginning, but the father is continuance. The son offersthe father his life as a vessel for carrying forth his father’s dream. Your father’s living?
    JOE : Um, dead.
    ROY : He was . . . what? A difficult man?
    JOE : He was in the military. He could be very unfair. And cold.
    ROY : But he loved you.
    JOE : I don’t know.
    ROY : No, no, Joe, he did, I know this. Sometimes a father’s love has to be very, very hard, unfair even, cold to make his son grow strong in a world like this. This isn’t a good world.
    MAN : Here, then.
    LOUIS : I . . . Do you have a rubber?
    MAN : I don’t use rubbers.
    LOUIS : You should. (He takes one from his coat pocket) Here.
    MAN : I don’t use them.
    LOUIS : Forget it, then. (He starts to leave)
    MAN : No, wait.
    Â Â Â Â Â  Put it on me. Boy.
    LOUIS : Forget it, I have to get back. Home. I must be going crazy.
    MAN : Oh come on please he won’t find out.
    LOUIS : It’s cold. Too cold.
    MAN : It’s never too cold, let me warm you up. Please?
    (Louis puts the condom on the Man ’ s cock, and they begin to fuck.)
    MAN : Relax.
    LOUIS (A grim, small laugh) : Not a chance.
    (More fucking. It gets rough. Louis falls on his hands and knees. Then the Man stops.)
    MAN : It . . .
    LOUIS : What?
    MAN : I think it must’ve . . . It broke, or slipped off, you didn’t put it on right, or— You want me to keep going?
    Â Â Â Â Â  Pull out? Should I—
    LOUIS : Keep going.
    Â Â Â Â Â  Infect me.
    Â Â Â Â Â  I don’t care. I don’t care.
    (The Man pulls out.)
    MAN : I . . . um, look, I’m sorry, but I think I want to go.
    LOUIS : Yeah.
    Â Â Â Â Â  Give my best to Mom and Dad.
    (The Man slaps him.)
    LOUIS : Ow!
    (They stare at each other.)
    LOUIS : It was a