‘Disgraced’: Dinner Party Politics

TENSE TOPICS: (left to right) Gretchen Mol, Hari Dhillon, Karen Pittman & Josh Radnor in ‘Disgraced.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

 

DISGRACED
Written by Ayad Akhtar
Directed by Kimberly Senior
Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), www.DisgracedOnBroadway.com

By David NouNou

While watching Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced, two words immediately spring to mind: provocative and contrived. I can’t honestly add “thought provoking” because that all depends on how one feels about the subject matter. Mr. Akhtar has created this huge cauldron and has thrown everything into it, Muslim, Jew, white, black, Islamic art, religious beliefs, political stances, bigotry, and prejudices. All this sounds like heady material but ultimately it comes across as too calculated. It’s being invited to friends for dinner and after some drinks, the evening turns into Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Instead of attacking the fragile state of marriages, religion, beliefs, both sacred and secular, come under fierce attack.

Amir (Hari Dhillon), a Pakistani lawyer who was of Islamic faith, and lives on the Upper East Side and specializes in mergers and acquisitions, has done everything to assimilate to the American way of life. He married a blond beauty trophy wife, Emily (Gretchen Mol), which would be something totally against the Quran. Emily specializes in Islamic art and is up for a showing at the Whitney Museum. His nephew Hussein, who has also assimilated and changed his name to Abe (Danny Ashok), pops in while Emily is sketching a portrait of her husband. Abe wants Amir to represent an imam accused of funding Islamic terrorists against Amir’s better judgment. The imam doesn’t trust his Jewish lawyers and would prefer to have Amir has part of his legal team. Amir is up for partnership in his Jewish law firm. To please the well meaning but misguided and deluded American Emily, he attends a hearing and now starts the stirring of this proverbial cauldron.

A few weeks after this incident, Isaac (Josh Radnor), a Jewish art curator interested in Emily’s art, among other things, is married to Jory (Karen Pittman), a black lawyer who also works in Amir’s law firm, and they are all friends. Exposition set up, drinks flow and dinner begins.

There is nothing off the table; from racist rants to religious shredding, the gloves come off and everyone is on their own, nothing is sacred. Everyone is disgraced, whether it is through race, religion, beliefs, ideas, marriage or friendship. Kimberly Senior puts her actors through a shredder; her direction is swift and peels off all their layers. Needless to say, they all come off superbly and sincerely.

Mr. Akhtar has totally opened the theater to something new, unfamiliar and uncomfortable. This is not Rodgers and Hammerstein shedding light on racism as in South Pacific. There is plenty of grit and as far as Mr. Akhtar is concerned, honesty and the actors do his words justice. This is not theater for the faint of heart; there is no comfort zone here. Earlier I mentioned provocative, and it is. I also mentioned contrived, for where else are you going to find a black, Jew, Muslim and white all occupying the same space and time and justifying their true nature at a dinner party? You may enjoy it or might find it repellant, depending on what your stance is. In the end, this is reality and what is going on in the real world today.

LAW FIRM COLLEAGUES: Hari Dhillon & Karen Pittman in ‘Disgraced.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published October 29, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on October 28, 2014