I'm Too Cerebral for My Mother

I love my mother. How my parents managed to have two fairly artistic kids in a non-artistic household is a mystery, but bless her, she grew to love theatre. However, you can’t take the suburb out of the woman, especially if she still lives in one.
Over the holidays, the subject of the HBO production of Angels in America came up. I said it was a beautiful piece, but warned her that she may find the length and aesthetic difficult. (Hey, she loves Rivers & Tides, so I thought she could get into a process.)
Apparently last week she rented Angels in America. She e-mailed me at work.

My mom: OK, so I rented Angels in America…title is a tad bit deceiving. About an hour into it I decided that I'd seen enough. Is the whole thing about homosexuality? Does anything happen? Does Mary Louise Parker and her husband split? Why is it titled Angels in America?

Me: (a short version) Well, to know why it’s titled Angels in America you’d have to watch the whole thing….The Angel doesn’t show up until the end of the first DVD (and I warned you about that). Yes, it is about homosexuality in that it was written in the late 1980s (and set there obviously), but I think it transcends that subject to consider the larger themes of humanity and politics and even the environment and how we move from a time as turbulent as the 80s into the new millennium….Angels is a very difficult text, very cerebral….

In the meantime, so amused by Mom’s, uh, reaction (I think would be the politic word), I passed her e-mail along to a friend, who wrote more appropriate replies:

1) Is the whole thing about homosexuality?
Yeah, it’s based on a Tony Kushner play.

2) Does anything happen?
Um, not really…they talk about a lot of stuff but…it’s based on a Tony Kushner play.

3) Does Mary Louise Parker and her husband split?
I didn’t know she was married. Oh, her character. Um YES…but that’s a GOOD thing because he’s a gay, Mormon and…it’s based on a Tony Kushner play.

4) Why is it titled Angels in America?
Cuz…there’s Angels in it…and it takes place in America. Go figure.

Well, that puts it into perspective. I forwarded that to my mother, who probably found it more useful than my explanation:

Mom: I don't like difficult and what the hell does cerebral mean?

I give up. I'm going to see Fassbinder's Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant at Last Planet Theatre now.