I’m no theatre critic but am moved to share some impressions of playwright Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced” (2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) which I attended Friday evening at the Goodman with my daughter and her fiance. In this taut one-act 90 minute play, skillfully directed by Kim Senior, a secularized and successful Muslim-raised Manhattan attorney comes to terms with a series of events (spoiler alert) melting down in a perfect storm of dramatic circumstances.
This is a play about “big ideas” touching on many provocative and timely themes: tribalism, apostasy, Muslim’s treatment of women and Jews, anti-Zionism, 9/11, Islamophobia, domestic violence, terrorism, the left’s uncritical defense of Islam and others. The protagonist, Amir Kapoor, is cast as the assimilated Muslim who speaks critically of his former religion highlighting the anti-Semitism, misogyny and violence that can pervade it. It falls to the other characters, including his liberal artist wife Emily, to defend Islam and in the process they club him with the term “self-hating Muslim,” a term typically attributed to Jews (i.e. “self-hating Jew”).
In this play, Amir’s criticisms of Islam seem to be written off to his “self-hating” since attributing them to logic or critical thinking is a bridge too far. Since a play like this has the opportunity to educate, its unfortunate the one character personally informed on Islam is handicapped with “self-hating” which, to the uninformed viewer, must diminish the worth of his concerns.
In the post-performance discussion we attended, this situation repeats. Almost all the theatre-goers who spoke attribute Amir’s criticism of Islam to his being a “self-hating Muslim” as opposed to his being a Muslim who views critically his ex-religion. Thus on the stage as well as in group discussion concerns about Islam are written off to some kind of mental condition. “Disgraced” while exploring political correctness also falls victim to it due to this handling, but if you’re not tuned in you’d miss it.
Disgraced will make you think and is worth your time. It’s at the Goodman and runs through October 25.
ArchitectGuy on Israel 
Richard, my wife and I saw this play yesterday afternoon. Your summary comments are excellent! Nice pick up about the use of “self hating” used to dilute the meaning of the central character’s observations about Islam. The impact is to trivialize his points by reducing them to products of his psychological turmoil rather than the more frightening alternative – reflections of core cultural essence.
In an important plot choice, the violence unleashed by the central character on his wife can be viewed as reinforcing the reality of the character’s description of Islam.
Another theme I found interesting was the dissonance between the narratives that each of the characters used to define themselves, verses the more authentic core produced by their upbringing. A constructive caution to all about the sometimes conflicting elements of who we are, or who we think we are.
Thanks for the comments.
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