Free Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Revised and Complete Edition by Tony Kushner Page A

Drinking is a sin! A sin! I raised you better than that. (She hangs up)
    Scene 9
    The following morning, early. Split scene: Harper and Joe at home; Louis and Prior in Prior’s hospital room. Joe and Louis have each just entered. This should be fast. No freezing; even when one of the couples isn’t talking, they remain furiously alive .
    HARPER : Oh God. Home. The moment of truth has arrived.
    JOE : Harper.
    LOUIS : I’m going to move out.
    PRIOR : The fuck you are.
    JOE : Harper. Please listen. I still love you very much. You’re still my best buddy; I’m not going to leave you.
    HARPER : No, I don’t like the sound of this. I’m leaving.
    LOUIS : I’m leaving.
          I already have.
    JOE : Please listen. Stay. This is really hard. We have to talk.
    HARPER : We are talking. Aren’t we. Now please shut up. OK?
    PRIOR : Bastard. Sneaking off while I’m flat out here, that’s low. If I could get up now I’d beat the holy shit out of you.
    JOE : Did you take pills? How many?
    HARPER : No pills. Bad for the . . . (Pats stomach)
    JOE : You aren’t pregnant. I called your gynecologist.
    HARPER : I’m seeing a new gynecologist.
    PRIOR : You have no right to do this.
    LOUIS : Oh, that’s ridiculous.
    PRIOR : No right. It’s criminal.
    JOE : Forget about that. Just listen. You want the truth. This is the truth.
          I knew this when I married you. I’ve known this I guess for as long as I’ve known anything, but . . . I don’t know, I thought maybe that with enough effort and will I could change myself . . . but I can’t . . .
    PRIOR : Criminal.
    LOUIS : There oughta be a law.
    PRIOR : There is a law. You’ll see.
    JOE : I’m losing ground here, I go walking, you want to know where I walk, I . . . go to the park, or up and down 53rd Street, or places where . . . And I keep swearing I won’t go walking again, but I just can’t.
    LOUIS : I need some privacy.
    PRIOR : That’s new.
    LOUIS : Everything’s new, Prior.
    JOE : I try to tighten my heart into a knot, a snarl, I try to learn to live dead, just numb, but then I see someone I want, and it’s like a nail, like a hot spike right through my chest, and I know I’m losing.
    PRIOR : Apartment too small for three? Louis and Prior comfy but not Louis and Prior and Prior’s disease?
    LOUIS : Something like that.
          I won’t be judged by you. This isn’t a crime, just—the inevitable consequence of people who run out of—whose limitations—
    PRIOR : Bang bang bang. The court will come to order.
    LOUIS : I mean let’s talk practicalities, schedules; I’ll come over if you want, spend nights with you when I can, I can—
    PRIOR : Has the jury reached a verdict?
    LOUIS : I’m doing the best I can.
    PRIOR : Pathetic. Who cares?
    JOE : My whole life has conspired to bring me to this place, and I can’t despise my whole life. I think I believed when I met you I could save you, you at least if not myself, but . . .
          I don’t have any sexual feelings for you, Harper. And I don’t think I ever did.
    (Little pause.)
    HARPER : I think you should go.
    JOE : Where?
    HARPER : Washington. Doesn’t matter.
    JOE : What are you talking about?
    HARPER : Without me.
          Without me, Joe. Isn’t that what you want to hear?
    (Little pause.)
    JOE : Yes.
    LOUIS : You can love someone and fail them. You can love someone and not be able to—
    PRIOR : You can , theoretically, yes. A person can, maybe an editorial “you” can love, Louis, but not you , specifically you. I don’t know, I think you are excluded from that general category.
    HARPER : You were going to save me, but the whole time you were spinning a lie. I just don’t understand that.
    PRIOR : A person could theoretically love and maybe many do but we both know now you can’t.
    LOUIS : I do.
    PRIOR : You can’t even say it.
    LOUIS : I love you, Prior.
    PRIOR : I repeat. Who cares?
    HARPER : This is so scary, I want this to stop, to go back.
    PRIOR : We have reached a