A Bright Room Called Day Book

I am a huge fan of Kushner's Angels in America, and I'm a gigantic nerd when it comes to the politics and culture of Weimar Era and World War II Era Germany. I can't get enough of it. The abrupt and bizarre shift from decadent liberalism to genocidal fascism, I find it all extremely fascinating. So needless to say when I picked up A Bright Room Called Day and read the back I was immediately interested to read it, something that brought Kushner and Hirschfeld's Berlin together.

I find A Bright Room to be an extremely complicated play, even more so than Angels. Angels packs in so much politics into a world of extremely human characters (and angels, and ghosts, and drag queens) and it all works seamlessly. A Bright Room, on the other hand, feels much more metaphorical. The characters, the room, their discussions, their beliefs. They're human, but more abstract than those of Angels. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, but I feel like it's difficult as a play. I can think of it as a play that can only be read, but at the same time I would love to see it performed (performed well, of course).

I have to say, though, Kushner has to be commended for his presenting an argument about fascism in contemporary society. Reading it, I felt like you could simply replace "Reagan" with "Bush" or "Harper" and it would still feel so true, and so completely sincere. The character of Zillah, the didactic, soapbox preaching (possibly lesbian?) Jewish woman (who, Kushner assures the reader, is not the author) was amazingly written. Another favorite, well written scene was when the devil first arrives in Berlin. I simply adore when Kushner delves into the mystical. Those moments are always my favorites.