'Floating in a most peculiar way: Angels in America, David Bowie, Toneelgroep Amsterdam'

Toneelgroep Amsterdam’s (TGA) production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes (1991–92) was first performed in 2008 and has been a regular part of their repertory ever since. Directed by Ivo van Hove, this is also a production for which every note of music and every recorded sound is taken from David Bowie’s work. Using interviews with Ivo van Hove and other members of TGA, this article explores the relationships of support, mutual excavation and surprise between this production of Kushner’s plays by Holland’s leading theatre company and David Bowie’s music. It does so with an emphasis on floating as a lyrical, scenographic and ontological state. And in the process it covers topics such as the relationships of Bowie’s lyrics to Kushner’s text, autobiography’s presence in theatre, the impact of white light, and vinyl LPs.