Review: A NICE INDIAN BOY at Olney Theatre Centre

A young person brings his or her love interest home to meet the family, hoping they'll get along well, terrified that they won't. Chances are you've seen several films, plays, and television episodes centered around that theme; indeed, you may have even experienced this scenario in your own life. "A Nice Indian Boy" by Madhuri Shekar, which runs at Olney Theatre Centre's Mulitz-Gudelsky Theatre Lab Through April 9, presents a fresh and engaging take on this well-established trope.

Archit (Abhimanyu Katyal) and Megha (Lynette Rathnam) are a middle-aged Indian immigrant couple who run a successful catering service in the San Francisco Bay Area. One might anticipate that any problems they would have with their son Naveen's (Carol Mazhuvancheril) partner would stem from the latter's incompatability with the family's culture. In fact, Naveen's lover Keshav (Noah Israel) is a practicing Hindu and only too eager to please them. The problem is that he is 1. male and 2. white.

It is established that Keshav was an orphan who was adopted by (now deceased) Indian parents and developed a reverence for their culture; he and Naveen first meet at a Hindu Temple and rapidly fall in love. Naveen came out to his parents five years prior to the play's opening and they are finally starting to accept it. (Hilariously, in an early scene, they are watching the 2008 film "Milk," starring Sean Penn as the murdered gay San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk, for "research.")

Archit and Megha's dinner with Naveen and Keshav coincides with the unexpected arrival of Naveen's brash sister Arundhathi (Jessica Jain) who has recently separated from her "perfect" Indian husband Manish. Keshav's nervous efforts to please "Auntie" and "Uncle," as he calls Naveen's parents, are misinterpreted as condescension. The dinner ends disastrously after Naveen and Keshav reveal that they are already co-habiting (in fact, they are engaged) and Keshav smokes ganga weed in the bathroom in an effort to calm his nerves.

For the remainder of the play's 105 minute runtime, Naveen and Arundhathi confront old resentments from their childhood (Arundhathi feels her marriage was "arranged"), Naveen and Keshav have their first serious fight as a couple, as Naveen questions the latter's commitment, and Archit and Megha, grudgingly at first, make an effort to connect with and understand their children. Towards the play's end, Keshav visits Archit and offers some suggestions for new ingredients in his cooking, which the latter cautiously accepts and eventually praises. The symbolism is obvious, but well sold by the actors.

Director Zi Alikhan has assembled a fine cast who uniformly provide vivid characterizations. With wit and charm, the play explores issues of culutral identity and appropriation, family dynamics, and generational conflict. Innovative set design by Frank J Oliva allows for elegant transitions between several different locales.

Anyone who has ever been forced to straddle two different worlds will relate to "A Nice Indian Boy." By the end of the play, when the cast performs an intricate, energetic Indian wedding dance, there will not be a somber face in the crowd.

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