Mohammad’s Radio portrayed some of the most brutal and condescending attitudes of men towards women. While I was reading the play before the play reading on Thursday I felt that the plot was structured around Islam and Islamophobia in the close knit community of Gerritsen beach. I thought that Kelly’s conversion to Islam was specifically hard to accept by her parents and family friends because of the negative feelings developed towards the Muslim community following 9/11. In my mind, I was revolving the play around religion and I had failed to notice that certain aspects of the play felt incomplete or did not relate to a sole religious theme. I did not realize that the theme of the play was men’s attitudes towards women until Stephen Garcia mentioned it following the play reading. I think the issue of gender and sexism was portrayed really well in Mohammad’s radio. The play showed that the women in Garritsen beach had somehow lost control of their bodies. Throughout their youth and adult life they are expected to be subservient to men and have to live their life either avoiding a man’s advances or going along with it. The men in Garritsen beach have become so used to the women being available and ready that when Kelly makes the choice to cover herself its not her religion that makes people angry but her choice to be independent and free.

The actors for the play reading were absolutely perfect. For some reason when I was reading the play by myself I couldn’t really imagine the characters in my mind, but when the actors came out to play the characters I felt that they were perfectly chosen. I really liked the actress who played Alice. Although she was not acting or moving around her voice was so strong and full of emotion that she grabbed my attention every time she started to talk. The only part of the play that made me uncomfortable was the cursing. It was hard to listen to explicit talking like that especially when Ian was telling Terry about the girl he met at the bar.

I don’t know if I will be able to see the play if it is acted out on stage. The rape scene is kind of hard to take in and frankly I don’t think I would be comfortable with that scene on stage.

Overall I think Stephen Garcia did a marvelous job on this play. He didn’t outright give away the message of the play but he eloquently structured it so that the readers can find the message upon careful observation and reading.