Perth Voice Interactive

STARK naked North Perth local Stuart Halusz (performing in Homme Fatale: The Fast Life and Slow Death of Joey Stefano) once looked across the sea of men at his solo stage performance to see in the back row just two women — his mother and grandmother.

“That was really weird,” he says. “I credit them for supporting me in doing the work I wanted to do.”

Now appearing with his strides on in Black Swan Theatre’s Angels in America, Halusz draws parallels between that story of gay porn star Stefano and that of his new character, Joe Pitt, a lawyer grappling with latent homosexuality, in Tony Kushner’s award-winning play.

The real-life Stefano was out, loud and proud but, like the fictional Pitt, struggled to come to terms with his father’s rejection as the rise of AIDS further stigmatised gay men.

“Both deal with sub-cultures, and the homosexual community,” Halusz says.

Set in 1985 New York, Angels in America holds up a mirror to US politics of today, he says.

“It examines American society in the mid ‘80s, with the rise of AIDS, juxtapositioned against the decline of society with Reaganomics, and the economics of the Republican party.”

Written in 1992 the play took out just about every award going, including a Pulitzer and Tony for best play.

Turned into a miniseries staring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Mary-Louise Parker and Emma Thompson, it also won an Emmy.

The story follows Prior Walter (Adam Booth), a young gay man diagnosed with AIDS and abandoned by his lover.

Desperate and alone he’s visited in a dream by an angel, who tasks him with saving humanity.

Pitt and Prior’s paths cross, as the lawyer comes face to face with his repressed sexuality — and his wife with her valium addiction.

The play also raises some of the earliest environmental concerns, Halusz says.

“Which is why we need these angels to say what the…are we doing to the world.”

Along with his starring role in Angels, Halusz is in early production for his directing of Black Swan’s next production A Perfect Specimen the true story of “ape woman” Julia Pastrana.

Despite the workload, he reckons he’s “like a pig in clover” doing what he loves best.

Angels in America is on at the State Theatre, May 28 to June 28, and some shows are already sold out. Tix at bsstc.com.au

by JENNY D’ANGER