The Pulitzer Prize-winning Disgraced
by Ayad
Aktar is primarily a play of Shavian
dialectic, and it is in those debates, discussions and monologues that it is
strongest. The topic is the limits of assimilation when your root culture is
the one of which the Western world is most wary. The central character, though
not a practicing Muslim, is originally of that world; though now Amir (Hari
Dhillon) is a successful, high Octane
lawyer at a big firm. He watches his on-the-job behavior and connections very
carefully, though; he must daily maintain his distance from the subculture of
terrorism for which his face could easily become a symbol. And he’s married to
an upwardly mobile white woman (of course) named Emily (why not) (Gretchen
Mol) who makes her living as an artist,
and is increasingly influenced by design traditions of the ancient Muslim
world. Add his associate at the law firm, African American Jory (Karen
Pittman), and Emily’s, nerdy Jewish
intellectual art dealer Abe (Josh Radnor), further season the stew with Jory and Abe being married…and there
you are: all the “food groups” for the subject covered.
Except
for one. Amir’s younger nephew Abe (Danny Ashok) who has not eschewed his culture entirely, and finds himself seeking
a criminal lawyer to represent a Muslim spiritual leader. Very reluctantly, and
only at the urging of his wife, Amir agrees to take the case.
And
that’s the trigger for debate—and argument.
And
as long as we stay with debate and argument, the play is interesting; it puts
some age-old topics through new, contemporary filters and potentially presents
the viewer with new things to think about and consider. But in ways I can’t
reveal, lest I enter the land of spoilers, the playwright has felt the need to
contrive domestic drama where it isn’t entirely necessary, and that’s when it
jumps the rails; because the turmoil of that actually pulls focus from the
central issue. I have to assume that Mr. Akhtar means for it to dramatize the issue by taking it to a hot point—but to me
it seemed to dilute the proceedings, for leaving certain causal connections
unexamined, and delivering an endgame denouement that doesn’t seem as much
motivated as managed.
Still:
the performances are excellent under Kimberly Senior’s direction, and the audience engaged. Plays have
been Pulitzer’d on far less…
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