Disgraced opens in a sumptuous Manhattan apartment that most New Yorkers could only dream about. In trendy shades of gray and teal, the expansive space reflects taste and style. The Upper East Side apartment’s backdrop is a balcony and floor-to-ceiling windows displaying the twinkling lights of the city skyline.
It’s no wonder, then, that well-to-do corporate lawyer Amir exudes a successful confidence. And why not? He’s on the verge of becoming partner in his firm, has a sexy, creative younger wife who’s an artist, and spends money as he pleases. However, even his $600 shirts cannot hide the underlying tension that exists from the moment the play opens. It builds and builds until the audience almost forgets it is watching a dinner party unfold. One cannot help but think of an all-out “War of the Roses,” graced with political and religious overtones.
Digraced, written by Milwaukee-raised playwright Ayad Akhtar, premiered in nearby Chicago in 2012 and opened Off-Broadway later that year. It premiered on Broadway in 2014 at the Lyceum Theater, earning numerous theatrical prizes as well as the 2013 Pulitzer Prize. Currently, it is receiving widespread recognition as one of the most-produced plays in US regional theaters, not to mention its international productions.
The play’s greatness depends on ability of the actors to gradually create a firestorm over Islamic teachings and their effects on the world. Amir (played brilliantly by (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh) is a Pakistan American, a fact he attempts to obscure as a potential negative to his career. His artist wife, Emily (Janie Brookshire), is entranced by the repetition and traditions of Islamic art, which she attempts to capture in her own paintings. The play asks as many questions as it answers, which is perhaps why it earned the Pulitzer, but this also can be frustrating to viewers wanting easy answers. Despite their appearance of being a happily married couple, Amir and Emily have a rift that only deepens as the play continues. The play involves a dinner party with friends: another married couple whom they’ve met through professional channels. Issac (Jason Babsinksy) is Emily’s Jewish art dealer. He is married to African American Jory (Austene Van). She is also Amir’s co-worker at the investment firm.
The Milwaukee production is produced in conjunction with the Guthrie Theater and the McCarter Theatre. The director, Marcela Lorca, is from the Minneapolis-based Guthrie Theater.
As Lorca confidently allows the tension to build from a simmer to full boil, all sorts of unconventional (and politically in-correct) views are spewed across the dinner table. Amir’s inability to come to terms with his past and his present lead him to a destructive end. Further comment might lessen the thrill ride that marks Disgraced from start to finish.
While the play is timed to hit Milwaukee in the dead of a biting-cold winter, it is not intended to warm one’s heart. Instead, it pierces through the façade of justifying what’s necessary in order to exist in American society. Disgraced is deeply disturbing on many levels; a thought-provoking play that is perhaps even more timely now than when it was written a few years ago.
