Part
two of Tony Kushner’s epic tale of AIDS in 1980s America begins in a ruined
place where the old orders are splintering and everything—and everyone—has come
apart. Prior Walter is a prophet, and now the “great work” of rebuilding this
devastated world can begin. We meet characters who, having faced annihilation,
must now confront their own stubborn indestructability. Profoundly funny,
magnificently theatrical, and startlingly timely, Perestroika is a story about
locating hope in the midst of chaos. The New York Times called it “a true
millennial work of art, uplifting, hugely comic and pantheistically religious
in a very American style.”