Comments on a play by Wajahat Ali
The mercury news gave it praise in a way by complimenting its take on the Muslim American family, the unique perspective in the wake of September 11th and the abridged life story of its author who wrote basis for it due to an assignment from a professor in a short story class at UC Berkeley. This play was started soon after 9-11 and thus its performance this weekend was of significance. That however is enough background for now- on to my thoughts.
This play started at 8:15 despite it being an 8 o'clock show- and when it started the professor who gave the assignment spoke briefly about the show's important perspective and the characters all being truly human yatta yatta so good that after this weekend the show is on its way to New York blah blah without further adieu the show... Bad way to start. We've all been sitting in our seats long enough to learn from the program notes how much you all love this show and you don't need to praise the feast before its been cooked. We don't need to get your opinion via the newspaper, the program and you before we've seen it to make our own opinion.
Play begins. Act one has five scenes and drags on far too long. The idea behind the characters is similar to every other "our ethnic group has a unique story about coming to America and being discriminated against and our kids don't appreciate it and fail to meet our expectations in different ways..." story. Seriously this is no longer original. The acting is pathetic and very obviously acting and the writing is mediocre- some good moments at times though the story drags and has no real plot to hold it together. Basic introduce characters as they enter- talk about another character and look THERE HE IS! Now continue pattern until they're all there. Tech is a bit sloppy with the cues and lighting is very basic. Between scenes there is a blue out when all goes... blue and actors move to the next spot and then lights up again. And this looks very-... lame? Yeah that's the word I was looking for. At no point was I fully engaged in the story or characters though the acting did have something to do with it- the writing wasn't exactly brilliant either.
INTERMISSION = Bad music for 15 mins and then- back to the show.
Act two has 3 scenes and rather than being a pointless kind of boring comedy with perspectives on Muslim life- it was a pointless slightly engaging drama in a series of monologues written as dialogues and delivered straight at the audience as if a monologue that was also some perspective on Muslim life in relation to other Muslims. At the end while watching TV it turns to completely random life secret being told and then back to we can't judge what we haven't lived and the media hates us... And somehow just like earlier they were surprised about this though they mention they were watching fox news (headdesk). Very obvious tech blunders with lights going off mid scene and music before it was supposed to come on. Acting slightly improved though they all were acting towards the audience and never really reacted properly to each other. The monologues that weren't meant to be that way were almost good- though cliché but the writing was definitely better than the first act. After the show they did an unprofessional looking wave of a bow that was meant to be together- before they walked off only to come back off the stage to talk to friends within 1 minute of the house lights going on. The play ended at 11:10, which in my mind was far too late as much of the story dragged and could easily be sharpened. (A plot would also be nice)
Overall thoughts- this kind of play is pointless. They lack an engaging plot and those who will chose to go to it already know that not all Muslims are terrorists and not all Muslims agree with each other and act in the same manner. If you aim to educate you're preaching to the choir. So if you're going to do a play of this point it needs to be GOOD, it needs to be something that is well acted, something that is fast moving and engaging and well done with technical portions so it can attract a theatre going crowd and get word of mouth on its side. In the audience before the play I was listening to talk and almost everyone there was either
A) Muslim
B) A friend of someone in the cast or crew
C) A friend accompanying either A or B
Based on that I would assume its not doing so much enlightening and offering a new perspective to any of these people. If they want new people who don't fit that role to see it needs to be sharp. The set was mediocre and though it worked- it could be done better and make use of the space in a more engaging way. All the scenes were either in the living room or a bedroom (which was there for two scenes of the second act). The descriptions written by the director and producers and writer all reflect they are close and have been helping each other a lot- which is great but they need to get tougher to make this go anywhere if they're so serious about it having a chance to become a classic.
The show is too long, it drags, it has little plot and the first act does very little other than introduce characters. The closest bits to plot all come in the second act and are all in flowery monologues which are written as dialogues but they are delivered in the way of the first and are one sided on the most part.
The acting is very armature and I have seen many high school actors do much better. The characters are basically caricatures with random quirks, which makes them differ from stick figures but fails to flesh them out and the actors don't follow up with more.
The tech needs at least a week of solid run throughs because they don't know what they're doing and in general the show needs to be in a smaller more intimate space because no one seems to know what to do with an audience- project? you mean over act...?
At the end I was surprised when it received a standing ovation but then I remembered who the audience was made up of- friends and local community. I did not participate in the ovation as it was being over praised when it needs criticism if it is to achieve the lofty goals, which I doubt it will. When it goes to NY I’m sure the critics will find it, rip it to pieces and in doing so give it a chance to rebuild into something good- it has some potential though its not achieved it.
