PUBLISHED November 21st, 2016 07:00 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 03:02 pm
The Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) rounds off their 2016 season with one of the most thought provoking plays this decade – the Singapore premiere of Disgrace. Besides winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2013, it’s also the most staged play in the US in 2016.
Written by US-born Ayad Akhtar, whose parents (both doctors) migrated from Pakistan in the 1960s, most of his work over the past 10 years have examined his dual identity. In the 2005 film The War Within, which he co-wrote and starred in, he examined what turns a Muslim everyman into a terrorist; his 2012 novel American Dervish is a study of a boy in the US Midwest – Akhtar grew up in Wisconsin – coming to terms with Islam. Disgraced is a powerful further variation on the theme.
The protagonist of the play is a Pakistani American and Muslim man Amir, who’s achieved the American Dream with a great job as a lawyer and beautiful artist wife (who happens to be influenced by Islamic imagery). At a celebratory dinner however, things start to unravel when he’s involved in a controversial case of faith and his Muslim heritage is questioned. He is forced to ask himself the question: has he removed himself too far from his roots? This leads to a fiery debate on prejudice, identity and faith and the disintegration of Amir’s career, marriage and identity.
Post 9/11, some Americans treat Muslims (even those born in the States) with suspicion, and even outright bigotry. Amir (Gaurav Kripalani, who is also SRT’s Artistic Director) has changed his surname of Abdullah to the more Hindu-sounding Kapoor, with a backstory of India, rather than terrorism-prone Pakistan.
On top of that, he’s renounced Islam and defied his family by marrying someone of a different race and religion – who seems to have a naive, romantic view of Islam, as reflected in her paintings.
The well-meaning Emily (Jennifer Coombs) and the couple’s nephew Abe (Ghafir Akbar) roped Amir into the defense of a Muslim cleric suspected of terrorism, thereby provoking his tragic spiral.
At a dinner party, over appetisers (including pork), Amir, Emily and their guests — Jewish Isaac (Daniel Jenkins) and his lawyer wife Jory (LaNisa Frederick), who is black – engage in conversation that soon turns explosive.
Director Nate Silver has directed previous runs of the play on Broadway. Not a production that shies away from raising difficult questions about religion and identity, the staging of this play and the recent US Presidential elections is a true reflection of art imitating life. The recent Trump win and his comments about Muslims will bring the question of what it means to be a non-white American to the fore.
Will it give rise to more like Amir who feel that they have to mask their true identity? There are no real answers but it’s worth catching this provocative play and getting more insight.
Disgraced is on at KC Arts Centre from now till 4 December 2016. Tickets are available from SISTIC and do stay on for the post show dialogue and Q&A session after the performance.