An Ordinary Muslim

B-

Hammaad Chaudry is a lucky man. His thesis advisor for his MFA at Columbia in 2014 was none other than Tony Kushner, who has helped steer his play through drastic revision and expansion— from 70 minutes to 2 1/2 hours - culminating in this production at New York Theatre Workshop. The focus of the play is the Bhatti family of West London in 2011. The father, Akeel (Ranjit Chowdhry), born in India but relocated to Pakistan after the partition, emigrated to England about 40 years ago and has worked his way into the middle class. His emotionally distant wife Malika (Rita Wolf; Homebody/Kabul) is recovering from a heart attack. The lead character is their assimilated son Azeem (Sanjit De Silva; Dry Powder), who works at a bank where he hopes to become branch manager. His wife Saima (Purva Bedi; East Is East), more religious than Azeem, has influenced him to give up alcohol and behave more devoutly. Saima is considering wearing a hijab to work, but Azeem is against the idea. Azeem’s older sister Javeria (Angel Desai) is making a rare visit from Manchester where she lives with her husband and two small children. Imran Jameel (Harsh Nayyar) is the leader of a revivalist Muslim group and his son Hamza (Sathya Sridharan; This Is How It Ends) runs the mosque where Saima is a volunteer. Imran and Akeel had a falling out many years before. The only non-Muslim character is Azeem’s longtime “real” British friend David (Andrew Hovelson; The Father), who also works at the bank. The playwright succeeds in capturing the difficulties of living in a society where one never feels welcome. He certainly does not idealize the Bhattis. Abuse, both physical and emotional, has been part of their family life. The parents and, to a large extent, the son are far from sympathetic, which posed a problem for me. The subplots about persuading first Akeel, then Saima, to attend religious retreats were confusing. I found the play was generally overstuffed and would be curious to see the 70-minute version. I was surprised to learn that no-one in the strong cast is a Muslim. Neil Patel’s (Time and the Conways) scenic design and Susan Hilferty's (Wicked, Present Laughter) costumes serve the play well. Jo Bonney (By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Father Comes Home from the Wars) directs with her usual sure hand. Running time: 2 1/2 hours including intermission.

Summer Shorts - Series A ** C

The Festival of New American Short Plays is celebrating its 10th year with two series of three plays each at 59E59 Theater. The three plays in Series A, performed without intermission, last barely 80 minutes. 

“The Helpers” by Cusi Cram, presents two characters, a retired psychiatrist (Maggie Burke) and a former patient (David Deblinger), who meet on a bench in Greenwich Village on a cold winter day to settle some unfinished business. It’s a brief character sketch that doesn’t go very deep. The acting is adequate as is the direction by Jessi D. Hill.

Neil LaBute is back again this year with “After the Wedding,” in which a husband and wife (Frank Harts and Elizabeth Masucci) who have been married 5 or 6 years, face the audience in separate pools of light and engage in two overlapping monologues that start by relating amusing bits about their marriage but end up telling about a tragic event that occurred at the start of their honeymoon which they have tried hard to avoid thinking about. Since this is LaBute, there is some sexual content. The actors are convincing and Maira Mileaf’s direction is smooth. 

“This Is How It Ends” by A. Rey Pamatmat, by far the longest of the three plays, is an unwieldy absurdist look at the end of the world as seen by a gay man Jake (Chinaza Uche), Annie (Kerry Warren), the roommate he found on Craigslist  who reveals that she is really the Antichrist and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Death (Nadine Malouf), Famine (Rosa Gilmore), Pestilence (Sathya Sridharan) and War (Patrick Cummings). It turns out that the latter two are a downlow item. The plot is too disjointed to make much sense although director Ed Sylvanus Iskander (“The Mysteries” at The Flea) bravely tries.

The simple set by Rebecca Lord-Surratt features a back wall of louvred panels that swivel to reveal a smooth surface for projections on the reverse side. The costumes by Amy Sutton for the Four Horsemen are quite amusing. 

All in all, it was not a very satisying program. Before the first play, there was an interesting stop-motion short film of the crew assembling the set. The start was delayed for ten minutes by an argument over a seat between a man in a wheelchair and a woman with a walker that forced the house manager to intervene and got a round of applause from the audience when calm was restored. Would that the plays had been equally involving.