"That was Heaven". Hadrian's Villa as "fabulous" Heaven in Angels in America by Mike Nichols

Abstract

Angels in America is still Tony Kushner’s major achievement. In adapting it for television, Mike Nichols accurately respected the political agenda of the author (democratic, hebrew and homosexual), who also wrote the screenplay. The choice of Hadrian’s Villa (instead of a San Francisco devastated by the earthquake of 1906) as a background for the scenes which take place in the Paradise can be understood as coherent with Kushner’s ideological perspective, as well as with his original camp aesthetics.