THE HANGOVER REPORT – Hammaad Chaudry’s AN ORDINARY MUSLIM is engrossing, an encouraging debut

The company of Hammaad Chaudry's "An Ordinary Muslim" at New York Theatre Workshop.

The company of Hammaad Chaudry’s “An Ordinary Muslim” at New York Theatre Workshop.

Last night, I attended a performance of Hammaad Chaudry’s new play An Ordinary Muslim at Off-Broadway’s New York Theatre Workshop. With this play, Mr. Chaudry is making his professional debut as a playwright, and it’s an strong one. As a first draft, An Ordinary Muslim is an encouraging effort. However, the play feels slightly padded around the edges; some scenes could be more fully fleshed out, while others could be done away with altogether. The piece could also conclude more succinctly and affectingly.

But there’s much to admire about this play about a first generation Muslim family in London trying to sort out its identity in a society that at best “tolerates” them (e.g., to assimilate, or not to assimilate?), as well as other idiosyncratic demons. Mr. Chaudry’s writing is often engrossing, stemming from his keen understanding of what makes humans behave they way they do. As a result, his characters are layered in authentic, often times contradictory, stripes. Thematically, An Ordinary Muslim inevitably draws comparisons to  Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning firecracker Disgraced; it’s a credit to Mr. Chaudry’s talent that his work feels like a worthwhile companion piece, as opposed to a knock-off.

An Ordinary Muslim is receiving a beautifully produced and acted production at the New York Theatre Workshop, as per usual, helmed by Jo Bonney. The cast, top-down, is excellent; they include Purva Bedi, Ranjit Chowdhry, Angel Desai, Sanjit De Silva, Andrew Hovelson, Harsh Nayyar, Sathya Sridharan, and Rita Wolf. In the conflicted central role of Azeem Bhatti, Mr. De Silva does a convincing job of portraying a proud, ambitious British-born Pakastani man torn apart by feeling the need to assimilate, while facing intense emotions arising from personal shame, domestic abuse, and historical oppression. Oh my.

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AN ORDINARY MUSLIM
Off-Broadway, Play
New York Theatre Workshop
2 hours, 30 minutes (with one intermission)
Through March 25

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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