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Canberra Today 23°/26° | Tuesday, March 19, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Review: modern tragedy in ‘Disgraced’ needs untangling

“DISGRACED” is a modern twist on the classical tragedy where a great man is humbled because of a tragic flaw. 

Nephew Abe argues with Amir (r) in Disgraced, photo Prudence-Upton
Nephew Abe argues with Amir (r) in Disgraced, photo Prudence-Upton
Here, a powerful man is unravelled not because of a secret vice, but because of a public virtue.

Alpha dog corporate lawyer Amir Kapoor (a vigorous performance from Sachin Joab) comes from an Islamic family and was once deeply religious.  He now denies his roots, scrubbing away his past with deliberate omissions.

When Amir is cajoled despite deep reluctance to say a good word for an unjustly accused Imam, the media paint him as an Islamic lawyer.  This sets into course a chain of events that will destroy his career and home.

Amir is radically anti-Islam and speaks freely about its shortcomings.  The Pulitzer Prize winning script from Ayad Akhtar is a history lesson in the injustices of Islam, from a possible endorsement of wife-beating to its role in terrorism.

The only advocate of Islam’s virtue is Amir’s artist wife Emily (Geraldine Hakewill), an artist who has appropriated Islamic visual traditions in her work.  Her work has attracted the interest of skeevy and louche art tout Isaac (Glenn Hazeldine), who seeks to make her work the centrepiece of an exhibition.

Emily comes across as shallow, only interested in Islam for its unique aesthetic qualities.  With Amir and the pro-Israel Isaac vociferous on Islam’s many shortcomings, the play’s argument feels one-sided.

There is no mention, for example, of how alms to the poor is one of the central tenets of Islamic faith.

The play is equally bleak on the possibilities for Islamic people in American society, with all characters of Islamic origin either frozen out, victimised, exploited or radicalised.

The play is powerful and worthy of its Pulitzer, but deliberately ignores Amir’s possibilities for redemption.  Amir’s story is a tragedy, but a more realistic and reasonable discussion of the role of Islam in America would have planted more seeds of hope.
“Disgraced” is a domestic tragedy with a powerful political message, equal parts attack on Islam and on the people who victimise the Islamic, a knot that confronts the audience with the challenge of untangling it.

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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