Impact Angels in Americahad a tremendous impact
on American theater in the 1990’s, a force still felt to-
day. Set in the 1980’s, during a time when AIDS
evoked widespread fear and panic, the play speaks
against intolerance and ignorance. The years in
which the play was first performed signaled a time of
change in America. Bill Clinton won the presiden-
tial election in 1992, indicating an end to the Repub-
lican administrations of Ronald Reagan and George
H. W. Bush. For the gay community, this victory sym-
bolized a remedy to the oppressive nature of the con-
servative regime.
BothMillennium ApproachesandPerestroikawon
Tony Awards for Best Play and in 1993 a Pulitzer
Prize. The play challenges audiences’ views on reli-
gion, sexuality, race, and politics, and above all pro-
motes an understanding of human nature. In 2003,
the play was adapted for a Home Box Office (HBO)
miniseries.
Further Reading
Fisher, James.The Theater of Tony Kushner: Living Past
Hope. New York: Routledge, 2001.
Vorlicky, Robert, ed.Tony Kushner in Conversation.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
Danielle A. DeFoe
See also AIDS epidemic; Conservatism in U.S. pol-
itics; Homosexuality and gay rights; Jewish Ameri-
cans; Liberalism in U.S. politics; Literature in the
United States;Philadelphia; Queer Nation;Rent; The-
ater in the United States.
Antidepressants
Definition Drugs designed to alleviate the
symptoms of depression
A dramatic increase in the use of antidepressants in the
1990’s was stimulated by an increased public awareness of
depression, a cultural shift in viewing depression as a bio-
logically rooted disorder, and the development of new anti-
depressants with less severe side effects than previously
available drugs.
The experience of depression, characterized by sad-
dened affect and/or loss of pleasure, has been de-
scribed by writers for thousands of years. However, it
was not until 1961 with the publication of Frank
Ayd’sRecognizing the Depressed Patientthat depression
became a popularly accepted concept. Ayd’s book
received a promotional boost from the pharmaceu-
tical company Merck, which, looking to establish a
market for its new drug Elavil, purchased fifty thou-
sand copies of Ayd’s book and sent them to potential
distributors of the drug. Merck’s marketing cam-
paign resulted in the reification of depression as a
psychological syndrome and firmly established anti-
depressant drugs as a means of treatment.
A common feature of almost all antidepressants
is that they change levels of one or more of the
monoamine neurotransmitters: dopamine, epineph-
rine, histamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.
Classes of antidepressants differ, however, in both
means of action and specificity of neurotransmitter
targeted. The first antidepressants approved by
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the
1950’s and 1960’s were either of two categories:
monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs, such asThe Nineties in America Antidepressants 41
A bottle of Prozac, one of the most popular antidepressants of the
1990’s.(AP/Wide World Photos)