Our group, comprised of Manjekar Budhai, Samantha Dauer, and Jillian Panagakos, chose to see Ayad Akhtar’s play Disgraced. The show, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013, is currently running at the Lyceum Theater. It is directed by Kimberley Senior and has a cast of five actors: Hari Dhillon, Gretchen Mol, Josh Radnor, Karen Pittman, and Danny Ashok. Together, they put together a riveting show about the struggles of Muslim-Americans in modern day New York City that leaves the audience questioning the ideals of our society.

With just five actors and a simple setting of a couple’s small apartment, Disgraced is raw. It is not flashy. There are no extravagant backdrops, lighting systems, or musical numbers to draw the audience’s attention away from the significance of the dialogue between two couples at a dinner party. The set designer, John Lee Beatty, seems to have had a specific point to making the setting so simple and it works tremendously. We found that this, perhaps, is the reason why the show was so striking to us: everything about the set up and design is so realistic and so relatable that the themes presented throughout the course of the performance seem all that more conceivable. It was not at all like going to one of the more common Broadway shows, like Wicked or The Lion King, where the audience is able to look in to a fantasy world. Instead, Disgraced is meant to resemble our world as closely as possible in order to make the audience question whether the world of Disgraced is the same as that in which we live.

We were often taken aback by many of the ideas presented in the show and were appalled by the anti-American and anti-Muslim beliefs held by each of the characters. We were often times disgusted by what we saw and heard, to the point where each character was distorted by the end of the play. What started off as a friendly dinner party ended in a blood bath as each person showed their true colors and revealed their inner-struggles and beliefs. Although the ideas were radical, we came to realize that they were also necessary. As the characters spewed hatred and animosity, we were left questioning how true-to-life their opinions are.

Ultimately Disgraced is a piece that sheds light on Islamophobia in even the most progressive societies – particularly New York City. Especially since the September 11th attacks, Americans have grown increasingly afraid of Muslim culture and practices, a fear that mostly stems from an ignorance of Islamic practices and beliefs. Even as society becomes increasingly more progressive and accepting of people from different lifestyles, cultures, and religions, that fear is still present and deep-rooted. Disgraced works to shed light on the discrepancies between who people think that they are, and what is really inside. It presents one of the most important conversations that can be had in contemporary New York society: How deep-rooted is our xenophobia and to what extent are we really an “accepting” culture? By the time the show had finished, we and the rest of the audience were left to question the principles and ideals held by our city, our country, and ourselves.

– Manjekar, Sam, and Jillian