DISGRACED is the story of a successful Muslim-American attorney who has renounced his religion and secured a coveted piece of the American Dream. Living high above Manhattan's Upper East Side, he and his artist wife host an intimate dinner party that is about to explode. Witty banter turns to vicious debate, and with each cocktail comes a startling new confession, painting an unforgettable portrait of our perception of race and religion.
Reviewing DISGRACED at LCT3 for The New York Times, Charles Isherwood wrote:
"This rollicking new play by Ayad Akhtar is a continuously engaging, vitally engaged play about thorny questions of identity and religion in the contemporary world. The dialogue bristles with wit and intelligence. Mr. Akhtar puts contemporary attitudes toward religion under a microscope, revealing how tenuous self-image can be for people born into one way of being who have embraced another."
Now finally, 'Disgraced' has opened on Broadway, directed again by Senior but with less compressed tension and with four of the five characters recast. The play remains a smart and provocative work of unusual daring, one that should be seen by anyone who cares about serious theater and the knotted tangles of tribal beliefs that lurk under civilized layers of educated, liberal professionals. But the magic is missing at the center and that magic was Aasif Mandvi...Dhillon's Amir is more dashing and tightly wired, but without the charisma and likability that first must humanize a man who challenges us in monstrous ways. This Amir doesn't shock us enough when the politics of race and gender explode the tolerance of two upscale Manhattan couples...Nothing is sacred -- the Quran, the Old Testament, terrorism, art history, cultural tourism, ancient prejudices and blazing ambivalence -- as Akhtar rubs unexpected raw spots with enormous intelligence and humor. Too bad Broadway doesn't get to feel all the burn.
This is a genuinely provocative premise for an issue-driven play, and Mr. Akhtar deserves much credit for grappling honestly and forthrightly with what in other hands could easily have become a mealy-mouthed exercise in can't-we-all-get-along difference-splitting. Unfortunately, his dramaturgy isn't as impressive as his nerve. Not only do his characters spend far too much of the evening making speeches to one another, but every 'surprise' is telegraphed so far in advance of its eventual arrival that you find yourself getting actively impatient for the reveals. It doesn't help that the climax of 'Disgraced' is a get-the-guests dinner party that starts off with competitive upper-middle-class brand-dropping in the manner of Tom Wolfe (much is made of the fact that Amir wears $600 Charvet shirts to the office) and builds up to a full-scale brawl in which the participants, having downed a couple of drinks too many, rip off their masks of comfy tolerance and reveal themselves to be....wait for it...BIGOTS!
2012 | Off-Broadway |
Lincoln Center Theater LCT3 Production Off-Broadway |
2014 | Broadway |
Broadway Premiere Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2015 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Award | Karen Pittman |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Greenleaf Productions |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Ayad Akhtar |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Rachel Weinstein |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Alden Bergson |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The David Merrick Arts Foundation |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Shubert Organization |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jere Harris |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Darren DeVerna |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | TNTDynaMite Productions |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Ashley DeSimone |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Carl Levin |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jonathan Reinis |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jessica Genick |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Tulchin/Bartner Productions |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Stephanie P. McClelland |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Rodger Hess |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Richard Winkler |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Amanda Watkins |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Jenifer Evans |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Lincoln Center Theater |
2015 | Tony Awards | Best Play | The Araca Group |
Videos