The Muslim Ban. Those words still make me angry about the 45th president creating borders to keep the "undesirables" from entering the United States. Most sentient people are still unpacking the abominations foisted on human beings. Families being separated and the deeming of some nations as “shithole countries” is still a hot button. Playwright and director Kareem Fahmy’s A Distinct Society at Writers Theatre zeroes in on a border that perhaps was not as prominent compared to the children in cages on the US/Mexican border. Fahmy’s words and direction are a beautifully balanced equation of the confusion, anger, and raw emotion of bigotry and nationalism.
The play is based on true events that happened on the borders of Stanstead, Quebec, and Derby Line, Vermont, in a library with a duct-tape border pasted down the middle. The library is overseen by a Québécois woman named Manon. Kate Fry is perfect in the role of a woman torn by past betrayal, patriotism, and struggling to do the right thing as a human being. Manon loves to sing and has won the role of Carmen in the community opera recital. She wants to embody the sensuous firecracker persona of the heroine but the people who visit her library complicate her reverie. A possible truant, an American border patrol officer, and a father and daughter breaching the border as Muslims.
Cole Keriazakos plays Declan, the possible truant with a precocious knowledge of morality and heroism through graphic novels. Keriazakos is wonderful as the outsider American in Quebec where he is bullied and ridiculed by his classmates. The balance of expressing the emotions of a teenage boy through the heroism of the Green Lantern subgenre is quite an endeavor. Declan is an emotional minefield who finds refuge in Manon’s library while claiming to have a free period from school every day.
Amir Abdullah and Cole Keriazakos. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Declan also finds refuge and a father figure in border patrol officer Bruce Laird ably portrayed by Amir Abdullah. Bruce is a Black man from Detroit who signed on with Homeland Security because it offered stability and paid well enough to help his retired parents now living in California, near the Mexican border.
Abdullah is a good actor and does admirably well with what the script gives him. I feel that his role was shortchanged a bit without much revelatory insight into his emotional life. His character is less nuanced than the others as to why an American Black man would choose to reinforce the rules so harshly. I imagined that Bruce had a military background that gave him that Nuremberg “following orders” stance with the father and daughter who struggle to meet at what was a neutral and safe space until the Muslim Ban.
I wanted to see Abdullah portray more of that conflict between what is law and what is humanely wrong. I loved his chemistry with Fry and his wooing of her. He also brought some of the funniest lines to the play. The sweet and nerdy awkwardness of feathering his nest from Ikea at Manon’s encouragement is comic gold.
Amir Abdullah and Kate Fry. Photo by Michael Brosilow.
Rom Barkhordar and Aila Ayilam Peck bring a crackling energy to the play as the Iranian father and daughter try to connect. Barkhordar has a perfect emotional range as Peyman; he wants to feed his daughter who he believes is self-starving from being homesick. A revelation later in the play reveals how strongly the father and daughter are bonded intellectually and emotionally. Peck is spot-on as Shirin, the daughter who takes no crap and speaks the truth. She brings the truth out of Declan about his life and his despair at being an outcast with a cruel nickname.
The confrontation between Shirin and Bruce flashes with tension as she calls him out for what he is—a goon working on behalf of the US government. I wanted to stand up and applaud when Bruce uses Executive Order 13679 as his authority and Shirin lays waste to him and the order. 13679 was used by the government to gloss over racism and xenophobia. Peck beautifully portrays the courage and spine that women—particularly minority women—have to call upon repeatedly. This is a well-written play and Fahmy’s direction never strays into mawkishness with the emotional heft of the character’s revelations.
A special shout-out to the scenic design by Paige Hathaway. I have been to Writers Theater for a couple of shows (Pearl's Rollin With The Blues: A Night with Felicia P. Fields and Dishwasher Dreams), and the way it was transformed into a beautiful old library is amazing. I have a thing for libraries as they were my safe space as a child. The dark wood paneling, book carts, and mishmash of furniture invited hunkering down with a book.
The sound was also done really well. Friday was rainy for real and there is a storm in the play. I could not discern if it was real or great sound effects. Even the silence of the snowfall was done beautifully as if there was a white noise applied. It all added up to a good experience for the senses as well as providing material for the minds of the audience.
A Distinct Society pulled up a lot of memories for me as an American citizen. I remember the 19;95 referendum from Quebec wanting to be its own sovereign nation. It wasn’t a new idea as there were similarities; the Civil War had torn the United States in half, then the Troubles in Ireland, and more recently the call for Scottish Independence.
It is hard not to see how the division over race and ethnicity continues to ramp up everywhere. The referendum from Parti Québécois revealed the violence and the racism that I foolishly thought did not happen in Canada as it was a destination for enslaved Black Americans. That was less than 20 years ago—one generation. A Distinct Society puts that divide on the stage and it will resonate with anyone who can open their eyes to see and hearts to acknowledge.
A Distinct Society is now playing at the Writers Theatre, 325 Tudor Court in Glencoe. The show plays through July 23 on Wednesdays through Sundays with two performances on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets range from $35-$90 and it is worth the purchase and the scenic journey to Glencoe.
For more information on this and other productions, see theatreinchicago.com.
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