
Angels
Fall, by Lanford Wilson was first produced in 1982 at Miami's New
World Festival. The scene is a small mission church in a remote part
of New Mexico, where a middle-aged college professor and his lovely young
wife detour unexpectedly after the highway is closed because of a possible
"accident" at a nearby nuclear facility. They are soon joined by
Father Doherty, the benevolent but canny parish priest; a brilliant young
Navajo doctor, Don Tabaha, who is about to leave his people (despite
Father Doherty's opposition) to accept a prestigious research fellowship
in California; Marion Clay, an art dealer and the widow of an important
regional painter; and "Zappy" Zappala, her young paramour and a
tournament class tennis player.
Confined within the church as they
await the hoped for "all clear" signal the six, after an initial
reserve, begin to reveal their stories to each other--their problems and
possibilities, their hopes and fears, the personal crises which have
brought them not only to this place but to turning points in their lives.
Sometimes brightly humorous, sometimes deeply affecting, sometimes
explosively dramatic, the play becomes, in time, a parable of vocation and
survival which, in exploring the lives of its characters, illuminates the
human condition with a breadth of meaning and understanding which has
application far beyond the context of the play itself.

[ Top ]