Minor Characters
The Stranger
A man with whom Louis Ironson attempts to have rough sex in Central Park after he abandons Prior Walter. (Kushner specifies that this character is to be played by the same actor who plays Prior, suggesting just how futile Louis’s attempt to “escape” Prior is.)
Mr. Lies
The “imaginary friend” of Harper Pitt, who leads her into a make-believe world whenever she’s upset with her life with Joe Pitt. (Kushner specifies that this character is to be played by the same actor who plays Belize.)
Emily
Prior Walter’s nurse. (Kushner specifies that this character is to be played by the same actor who plays the Angel of America, further complicating the idea of whether or not the Angel is just a hallucination.)
Rabbi Isador Chemelwitz
A Jewish Rabbi who presides over Sarah Ironson’s funeral, and later fails to give Louis Ironson advice.
Martin Heller
A powerful political colleague of Roy Cohn.
Sister Ella Chapter
A Mormon woman who helps Hannah Pitt sell her house in Utah.
Prior I
A distant ancestor of Prior Walter.
Prior II
A distant ancestor of Prior Walter.
Mormon Mother
A figure in a diorama at the Mormon Visitors’ Center in Manhattan, who comes alive in one of Harper Pitt’s hallucinations and gives her advice about Joe Pitt and God.
Sarah Ironson
The grandmother of Louis Ironson, whose death from old age marks the beginning of the play.
Ronald Reagan
The 40th President of the United States, an icon of the Republican Party, and a symbol for the heightening conservatism and—according to some—bigotry of the 1980s.
Colonel Oliver North
An American colonel convicted of treason (probably as a “fall-guy”) after the Iran Contra Affair, during which the Reagan administration sold weapons to American enemies in Iran in order to finance a war in Nicaragua. The Iran Contra Affair is considered to represent the secret corruption of the era.
The Homeless Woman
A seemingly-insane woman who talks to Hannah Pitt when she first arrives in New York, and directs her to the Mormon Visitors’ Center.