We're Still Moving Forward - On Authoritarianism and Angels in America - a podcast by Laura Flanders

Half way through Tony Kushner’s play, Angels in America, two old Bolsheviks consider the prospect of the future in a scene set in the Kremlin on the verge of the end of the Soviet Union in 1985.

"The great question before us is: are we doomed?” says one. “Will the past release us…? “

Thirty years later, as Europeans reel from financial shock, austerity, and the biggest inward migration surge in memory, it’s a question that’s still without an answer. What is clear is that the authoritarianism of the past has yet to release its grip.

In 2015 right wing nationalist parties won elections across the continent – from Austria to Poland, Sweden, Turkey and Denmark.

Leading the way of course was Hungary, where strong man Viktor Orban has been in office as prime minister since 2010. Orban has a massive majority, just short of two thirds. His only real competition comes from the neo fascist Jobbik movement. To keep ahead of that, he’s used his power to write a new constitution, pack the courts, purge the arts and reign terror on the very poor and anyone he considers an outsider: before the war refugees, it was Jews, gypsies and LGBT people.

Forward or back? The last time I saw Angels In America was in Budapest in 2013. There, that Kremlin scene, played out in what felt like a very contemporary context. Playing Prior Walter, Kushner’s outspoken, cross dressing, openly gay lead, was Robert Alfoldi, an outspoken, gay, cosmopolitan Jew who’d just been ousted from his job as director of Hungary’s National Theater to be replaced by an Orban appointee who had sworn to return the theater to its Hungarian roots and make the National a “sacred space.”

Cut to the end of the play. “The world only spins forward,” said Alfoldi as Walter speaking unmistakably for all outsiders. “We will be citizens. The time has come”.

For every night of the run, the normally reserved Hungarian audience, rose clapping in unison, to give the play, Alfoldi, and the future a rousing ovation.

It’s a long piece, which ends with the words “The Great Work Begins.”

Kushner’s right. The great work of forward over backward isn't easy. Nor is it over, yet.

You can watch my interview with Angels in America author, Tony Kushner, this week on The Laura Flanders Show on KCET/LINKtv and TeleSUR and find all my interviews and reports at LauraFlanders.com. To tell me what you think, write to Laura@LauraFlanders.com.

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