Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes

It is February 1986. In a split scene, Louis waits on a bench, and Joe is visiting Roy in his hospital room. Roy, whose condition has deteriorated further, rambles about his Republican contemporaries who, unlike Roy, have abandoned the cause in favor of vanity. He insists that when he is dead, people will say that Roy did everything for money and fame, but he wants Joe to remember that it was about showing grit and never wavering. Joe agrees, telling Roy that he was afraid that Roy wouldn’t want to see him. Deliriously, Roy describes Ethel and asks if Joe has seen her anywhere. Roy questions whether Joe’s father had ever given him a blessing before he died, and Joe says that he didn’t. Roy asserts that he should have blessed him, and gestures for Joe to come closer and kneel. Roy places his hand on Joe’s forehead and rests his head on Roy’s hand. Both close their eyes. After a moment, Joe starts to talk, and Roy shushes him. Roy compares them to Jacob and his father Isaac in the Bible, but unlike Jacob, Joe does not have to trick Roy into blessing him. Roy points out a scar on his nose and tells Joe that it is from an unnecessary surgery that his mother had insisted on when Roy was an infant.