Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika Versions of Reality Quotes

As if the layers of reality weren't already complicated enough in the first part of Angels in America, Kushner starts adding new layers to think about in the second. In this scene we're once again taken to Harper's imaginary Antarctica. Near the end of the last play, the actor playing Joe appeared as an Eskimo. Now he shows up as Joe himself. What's interesting is that Joe isn't actually physically there. This is either Harper's imagined version of him, or another one of Kushner's reality-bending moments where a character can be consciously present in another character's dream world. You're making our heads hurt, Tony!

Harper's hallucinatory interaction with Joe overloads her imaginary Antarctica, and reality creeps in. Even though the little scene with Joe doesn't exist in normal reality, it still manages to shatter Harper's world of illusion. The pain of Joe's abandonment is just too much to imagine away.

When the cops show up, Harper's imaginary Antarctic vacation is officially over. Turns out she was just wandering around Prospect Park in the snow for a few days. Time to face reality, Harper.