On Sunday, May 28th, Peterborough’s New Stages Theatre Company wraps up its current season with a staged reading of Ayad Akhtar’s Disgraced at the Market Hall Performing Arts Centre.
For the final presentation in New Stages’ highly successful The Page on Stage Readings Series, producer Randy Read reunites the cast members of last year’s Toronto production, staged by Mirvish Productions and Hope and Hell Theatre Company, to recreate their original roles in this provocative (although often funny) play about race, religion, cultural appropriation, and Islamophobia.
This is a one-night-only chance for a Peterborough audience to see a play The Globe and Mail described as a “powerful attempt to articulate the experiences of Muslims in the West, post-9/11”. While the play is provocative, the Globe says “Akhtar’s aim is constructive. When we’re done with our outraged gasps, he demands our deeper understanding.”
“It’s a pretty fascinating play,” says Randy, who first saw the production during its original run in New York City. “It’s so funny, but so full of ideas. It’s very timely.”
Written by Pakistani-American playwright Ayad Akhtar, Disgraced was first staged in Chicago in 2012. In 2013, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and opened on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in September 2014, where it was nominated for a Tony award for Best Play. Disgraced also had the unique distinction of being the most produced play in the United States during the 2015-2016 theatrical season.
The Toronto production of Disgraced opened at the Panasonic Theatre in April 2016, receiving positive reviews. Mirvish Productions will be restaging Disgraced later this November at the same theatre.
“Disgraced is about Amir, a Muslim lawyer, who changes his last name to more of an East Indian name to fit in more strongly at his law firm,” Randy explains. “He and his wife have a dinner party and what is a witty evening explodes into a battleground over race, religion, and class in the 21st century.”
Reprising their roles in Disgraced are Raoul Bhaneja as Amir, Birgette Solem as his wife Emily, Gabe Grey as his nephew Abe, and Karen Glave as Amir’s law firm colleague Jory. Also appearing in the drama will be Alex Poch-Goldin in the role of Jory’s art curator husband Issac, stepping in for actor Michael Rubenfeld who is currently touring in Europe. Local audiences will be most familiar with Alex as the writer of 4th Line Theatre’s successful production of The Bad Luck Bank Robbers.
Together, the characters represent four separate segments of society: Muslim, white, African-American, and Jewish.
In his directorial notes to Disgraced, Akhtar writes “although Disgraced has many ideas in it … odd as it may seem, the play was written as an entertainment. Something of a situation comedy, that becomes an office thriller, that becomes a comedy of manners, that becomes a play of romantic intrigue, and finally ends in domestic tragedy.”
“I’m always looking for plays that enrich our understanding of the world in a potent way, but plays that are also laced with humour,” Randy says. “If there isn’t humour there, people tune out, they turn off. They need the humour to allow them to think more deeply about the play.”
Although it was first written in 2012 about the problems faced by Muslims living in America after 9/11, Disgraced is even more relevant given the current White House administration’s stance on Muslim peoples. However, as Randy points out, the prejudices are not solely that of Americans: they affect our own community as well.
“Peterborough is becoming more diverse,” Randy says. “I love the idea of people maintaining their culture. People should be able to maintain their identity and we should respect that. But even in Canada, there is still a discommode that people from other nations should just purely become Canadian. Even last year, with the fire at the mosque, obviously that tension still exists.
“As Canadians we’d like to ignore it, but it’s there. I think people need to see Disgraced because they need to see how important it is not to deny who you are, and how easily we judge other people according to labels instead of according to who they are.”
One of the most popular events of the New Stages’ season is the The Page on Stage Readings Series where Randy invites professional performers from across Ontario to do dramatic readings of plays that are chosen to not only entertain, but to often challenge and provoke the audience.
“Audience members become collaborators with the readings,” Randy says. “They become a much more equal part of the experience, as they are collaborating with the actors to create the world of the play. They are not just consumers that come in and say ‘Show me what you’ve got.’ They become more part of the experience.
“There is something pure about the relationship between the actor and the words. It is theatre in its purest form.”
There is much truth to what Randy says. Having attended most of the New Stages readings this season, I can attest to the fact that the readings are very addictive. It is a unique way to experience professional theatre without the time or budget that full productions require.
VIDEO: Trailer for the Toronto production of Disgraced
After the Disgraced staged reading, New Stages will also be revealing its shows and readings for the 2017-2018 season. Although nothing has been revealed yet, a large part of the season will be devoted to the reading series.
“I can’t tell you how many subscribers say to me ‘I love the shows and the cabaret, but I really love the readings’,” Randy concludes.
Disgraced will be performed at the Market Hall on Sunday, May 28th at 7:30 p.m. General admission tickets are $20 or $15 for students and art workers.
Tickets are available at the Market Hall box office (140 Charlotte St., Peterborough), by phone at 705-749-1146, or online at markethall.org. Tickets are also available (cash only) at Moondance (425 George St. N., Peterborough, 705-742-9425).
