Review: DISGRACED Will Leave You Stunned

What ultimately makes someone who they are? What gives a person their own identity? Does identity come from the nation one is born and raised in? Or a nation to where they immigrated? Is their sole identity a product of cultural, familial roots? Or, perhaps, is it from their religion, even after it has been abandoned?

Akhtar, as he confronts questions of Muslim-American identity and Islamophobia, proves that an identity in today's world cannot be simple. In his Pulitzer Prize award winning play, Disgraced, he shows the complexity behind navigating one's own carefully constructed version of self in a post 9/11 world.

Making its Arizona premiere, Disgraced leads up to a dinner party hosted by American-born, Muslim-raised corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor (Elijah Alexander) and Emily (Allison Jean White), his artist wife, in their Upper East Side apartment. What initially began as a celebration among friends ultimately turns into an evening of anything but as vital topics, such as racial identity, religious beliefs, and international politics become the focus of a heated conversation with grave ramifications.

As dinner begins and tension starts to suffocate the audience, with and intelligence continue to be abound in a discourse that many consider to be taboo: the current state of Israel and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, among others. Complex ideas do not disappear in a rising anger that brings Alexander and Richard Baird (Isaac) within inches of a brawl in the middle of the living room.

When the evening reaches the point of no return, the audience wishes that Nicole Lewis (Jory) could return to her playful banter once more, but alas - the damage is done.

It clearly is more than evident at this dinner: politics and religion are two topics one would consider to be off topic at any social gathering. What playwright Ayad Akhtar's Disgraced shows is that both topics, central and crucial in one play, makes for an evening of theatre spent on the edge of your seat.

Making their Arizona Theatre Company debut with Disgraced are Alexander (Amir), Vandit Bhatt (Abe), Lewis (Jory), and White (Emily). Baird (Isaac) returns to ATC, having previously appeared in Romeo and Juliet (Mercutio/Friar Laurence).

This production, along with Arizona Theatre Company's 2015-2016 season, is sponsored by I. Michael and Beth Kasser. Tickets start at $23 and can be purchased at the box office at the Temple of Music and Art (333 S. Scott Ave), via telephone at (520) 622-2823, or online at www.arizonatheatre.org. Discounted rates are available at all performances to seniors and active military members. Students can purchase $10 tickets at all performances and half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seats one hour prior to curtain. Disgraced runs until Nov 7th.

Following the Arizona premiere of Disgraced will be Stephen Schwartz's new musical, Snapshots (Nov 29th - Dec 19th); August Wilson's Fences (Jan 16th 2016 - Feb 2nd); the recent off Broadway hit, Sex With Men (Feb 11th - 21st); John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (March 5th - 26th); and the 2015-2016 season will come to a close with Scott Carter's new play: the Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord (April 9th - 30th).

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