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Aasif Mandvi portrays a self-made Pakistani-American man in Ayad Akhtar’s new drama

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

An old story about assimilation written with a modern-day slant by Ayad Akhtar, “Disgraced” regards an immigrant who achieves material success in America while abandoning his cultural identity – only to be tripped up by his rejected roots.

“Disgraced” centers upon Amir, a smart, extremely successful Pakistani-American corporate lawyer who sports $600 shirts and lives with his lovely WASP-y wife Emily in a swank Upper East Side apartment.

While Emily, a painter, finds beauty in the rigors of ancient Islamic art, Amir derides what he sees as the feudal and “backward way of thinking” of the Muslim religion he has renounced.

Then a friendly little dinner party that the couple shares with Isaac, an art curator who is Jewish, and his girlfriend Jory, an African-American lawyer who is an associate of Amir’s, blazes into a bitter argument about cultural values.

Festering troubles involving Amir’s family ties, career setbacks at his legal firm and a revelation about Emily’s intimate relationship with Isaac – obviously this last instance represents one conflict too many -- eventually goad Amir into a brutal moment that wrecks his marriage.

Not only is Amir considered disgraced in the viewpoint of the Muslim faith for the Western life he has chosen, he is later disgraced by his ugly behavior before the eyes of the audience.

Running a brisk 85 minutes, the play presents some intriguing, incisively-written arguments regarding cultural issues that compensate for the overabundance of ironic twists that gradually befall Amir. If the showdown over the dinner table seems like a somewhat pat device, the playwright provides a multi-shaded portrait of his ambivalent protagonist.

Aasif Mandvi aggressively depicts the self-made and possibly self-loathing Amir whose bristling energy contrasts sharply against Heidi Armbruster’s serene Emily. Erik Jensen and Karen Pittman contend well with their respective roles of Isaac and Jory, whose characters seem rather arbitrarily composed to serve the story. Omar Maskati solidly portrays Amir’s seething teen nephew.

Kimberly Senior, the director, stages the drama neatly and with a good eye towards visual detail upon an elegantly spare setting designed by Lauren Helpern. The top-shelf production values that Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3 unit gives its premieres of new plays like “Disgraced” are thoroughly admirable.

“Disgraced” continues through Dec. 2 at the Claire Tow Theater, 150 W. 65th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.lct3.org.

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