Angels in America One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of the play Angels in America is the extent to which it is makes use of the full potential of the theater to tell a story. Characters constantly break the fourth wall. Dialogue between characters takes place at the same time as dialogue between other characters to make it more meaningful and underline parallels between different character's lives. Scenes that are intensely realistic, such as Louis learning that his partner Prior has AIDS are paired with scenes that are pure fantasy. Harper appear in Prior's dream and later seems to have the knowledge she has gained from her dream, even though the two characters have not met in real life.

When Harper confronts her husband Joe in Act I, Scene 8, she strongly suspects that he has been unfaithful to her and no longer loves her. She acts the part of a crazy wife by proudly saying she burned his dinner but Harper is actually the more honest of the two characters, despite her addiction to Valium, because she is willing...

Harper can be ugly and combative -- "Are you a homo?" she asks Joe angrily -- but if it were not for her questions than their marriage would simply go on. "You think you're the only one who hates sex...it was wrong of me to marry you," she says. "If you try to walk out right now I'll put your dinner back in the oven and turn it up so high the whole building will fill with smoke and everyone in it will asphyxiate. So help me God I will." The couple is supposed to be religious but Harper often invokes God in an unintentionally humorous way and is surprisingly eloquent, given her mental issues and situation (unemployed, depressed, addicted, and married to a man who does not love her). Like Prior, she is the honest character in the relationship while her husband not only lies to her -- he lies to himself.
In this scene, it is very clear that the husband and wife are acting their roles at home just like actors in a play. Harper is acting the role of the crazy, wronged wife…