It has been more than a decade since the 9/11 attacks, but Seattle playwright Yussef El Guindi brings the audience right back to those chilling days. In Back of the Throat, he re-creates an atmosphere of uncertainty, fear, tension, suspicion, and grief. In the wake of that terrifying attack, Americans were unsure of many things, including its Middle Eastern-raised citizens. Guindi begs the question: what civil liberties are being lost at the price of security?
The play opened in San Francisco in 2005, and was produced the following year by New York’s Off-Off-Broadway Flea Theater. It has been performed at many regional theaters across the country. The play opens on the modest, New York apartment of Khaled (Christopher Tramantana), a Middle Eastern-American writer. As Throat begins, two FBI agents (played by Jonathan Wainwright and Andrew Voss) are at Khaled’s door. From the look of things in the apartment (kudos to set designer Rick Rassmussen), Khaled isn’t exactly living in the land of milk and honey. His studio apartment is basic to the point where one sees a mattress on the floor, a few chairs (none of them matching) and bookshelves lining the walls. Initially, Khaled seems relieved to see the pair of FBI agents. He tells them he was thinking of calling them, to see if he could help after the 9/11 tragedy. The agents start out with some light conversation, but things quickly go downhill. Khaled begins to get nervous as one of the agents starts rifling through his closets and a trunk that serves as a night table next to his mattress. The other agent keeps questioning Kahled, while assuring him that “this is standard procedure.” But Kahled isn’t convinced. He reminds them that he is a naturalized American citizen. “I know my rights,” he tells the agents more than once. As the questioning intensifies, Kahled refuses to talk unless a lawyer is present. He also asks the agents if they had a warrant for their search. All of this is waved off by the lead FBI agent. Eventually, one of the agents resorts to physical violence to encourage Khaled to admit that he knew one of the bombers. Tension builds as Khaled repeatedly denies his association with this person, who is represented in “dream sequences” by Mohammad N. ElBsat. But are these dreams? Or are they glimpses of reality? The playwright isn’t telling. Khaled demands to know who identified him as a possible informant. In brief vignettes, three women are interrogated by the FBI agents, including a librarian, an ex-girlfriend and a stripper (all played to excellent effect by Alexandra Bonesho). Al of them reveal information that is intended to shape the audience’s notion of what really happened to Khaled in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Under Edward Morgan’s taut direction, a roiling tension builds throughout the play. Much of the play’s intended humor is blunted by the seriousness of the subject, as Morgan chooses to sustain the edgy feel of this play. As the pivotal character of Khaled, New York actor Christopher Tramantana impresses with his character’s palpable sense of growing distrust. Khaled’s innocence seems genuine, despite the agents’ damning bits of evidence. Almost imperceptibly, Tramantana shifts his character’s perception of his friends and the world around him. Despite his arguments, Khaled feels the noose tightening around him. Before the play ends, his fear becomes full-fledged panic. As in any courtroom drama, Back of the Throat rests on the facts of the case. Even at the end of the play, one is still left wondering about Khaled’s innocence or guilt. There is no judge or jury to pronounce sentence. One’s own belief systems and biases come into play as one assesses Khaled’s situation. Next Act Theater gives its audiences something to think about long after the play ends. In doing so, Back of the Throat is a winning addition to the company’s current season.
