Disgraced

American Theater Company

Chicago

(773) 409-4125

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★★★

Many plays have been written about race and religion, but Ayad Akhtar’s “intense, unrelenting” new work makes most others seem tame by comparison, said Brian Hieggelke in Newcity Stage. In creating a story about an obnoxious Muslim-American professional, the playwright “gives voice to an underrepresented constituency,” but does so without “sugarcoating” the challenges that community confronts. Akhtar’s main character, Amir Randawa, is hardly a hero. A committed assimilationist, he shunned the religion of his upbringing and gave up a career as a public defender to become what the audience sees: “an a--hole corporate lawyer who wears $600 shirts.” But he’s being pressured by everyone around him to re-embrace his roots. His wife, a white, non-Muslim artist, values what her association with Islam does for her marketability. His nephew, a devout Muslim, wants Amir to help an imam accused of terrorism.

Once Amir finally agrees to visit the imprisoned cleric, “things quickly but believably turn from NPR-polite to ugly,” said Kris Vire in Time Out Chicago. Press coverage of the visit earns Amir unwanted scrutiny at work and damages his relationships with friends. His beliefs, appearance, and even his name are called into question, and he eventually finds himself manifesting a mind-set that he formerly considered a cultural stereotype. Usman Ally masterfully conveys this “astonishingly complex web of motivations and emotions,” enabling the play to deliver a “stunning gut punch.”

Predictability somewhat dulls the impact, said Hedy Weiss in the Chicago Sun-Times. Even when the “cultural and psychological minefield” of events that Akhtar created reaches a fever pitch, the script feels “all too deliberately booby-trapped,” and the characters seem like “overly neat mouthpieces” for familiar points of view. Still, Akhtar deserves credit for “jumping headfirst into an ethnic maelstrom wherein few writers would dare even tread water,” said Chris Jones in the Chicago Tribune. In Disgraced, “tolerance gets people nowhere.”