Raoul Bhaneja, Karen Glave, Michael Rubenfeld and Birgitte Solem in Disgraced.
Disgraced, the Broadway hit and 2013 Pulitzer winner by Ayad Akhtar was one of the most in-demand and produced plays in 2015, and Toronto audiences will have the opportunity to see what the fuss is all about when Mirvish brings it to the stage this April.
The story follows a group of thirty-something cosmopolitans, led by Amir, a Pakistani-American lawyer, his Caucasian wife Emily–an artist, Jory, an African American colleague from the firm, and her Jewish husband–art curator, Isaac. What unfolds are some deeply uncomfortable truths about what lies beneath the veneer, and what’s hidden within our innermost beings.
TheSceneinTO caught up with Birgitte Solem and Karen Glave, who play Emily and Jory, over a quick rehearsal break to talk about race, politics and Disgraced.
So, what were their thoughts when they first read the script?
BIRGITTE: I loved it. I felt as though it was a deeply human story, it wasn’t a play about niceties. You’re dealing with this fully fleshed-out, very real character that the audience starts to like, and then the issue of his identity, and how and where he fits in comes into play. It becomes so personal. I felt as though we could do this play a hundred years from now, and even if the situation changes (which I hope it does), the story is so heart-breaking that you can’t help but be engaged. There is a brash truthfulness to these characters that’s in your face, right or wrong.
KAREN: When I was sent the script I felt the subject matter was so timely. I didn’t feel this was an issue that would quickly go away. Then we had Paris (the attacks), and now Brussels, and I think this is a story so applicable to what is going on in politics and with Islamaphobia. At the time I was reading the play we were going through Canadian elections and there was all this backlash against the Syrian refugees and not wanting to let them into Canada. I really witnessed that divisive “us versus them” mentality and it was disheartening.
So true. As Canadians we like to think that we are somehow better than Americans with regard to tolerance and inclusion. In fact, our issues are quite similar, they just aren’t spoken about as openly. Disgraced is set in New York City but it could just as easily be right here at home.
K: I saw a story come up on my Facebook feed recently that brings this point home. A Black woman in the Annex was walking home in the cold, her winter scarf around her head for warmth. All of a sudden, a young man yells “lady go back to where you came from.” The woman was shocked and thought, “what are you talking about? I’m Canadian.” Here is a woman, just trying to keep warm, and she’s accosted. It made me realize that we think of ourselves as cosmopolitan, very hip, and forward thinking, but what it showed, was what can live underneath the veneer.
Could the situation that arises over dinner in the play, ever take place around your dining tables at home?
B: I’ve wondered, ‘could this happen to me?’ I don’t think so and I hope it’s not hubris, but I do challenge myself, scanning to see if there was ever a time, even the smallest instance where I’ve felt like this. The Emily character doesn’t really listen to other people. She’s very passionate about what she feels but she doesn’t listen. What I’ve personally learned from this is that listening is so important, and that really being aware means you might have to rethink things. That’s been a learning experience for me.
K: I feel like the people I know and people I associate with, and within my family, that the situation wouldn’t get to the same extremes. But there are debates that happen, and these are intellectual people. I recall my father debating with my mother at the dinner table about various issues, and you can’t help but differing in opinion. I wonder, when do you fall back to your tribe and the beliefs that are ingrained from our cultures?
What are your thoughts of the politics in Disgraced, and the politics we find ourselves bombarded with in our day-to-day lives?
K: We live in an age where there are politics of fear and too often we’re not being realistic. You can’t just build a wall to shut out a whole group of people because there are a few isolated extremists that do harm. That’s fear mongering, and the repercussions it has on the group that you’re discriminating against is abhorrent.
B: What’s interesting is that the characters in this play think that they’re above all of these politics, and then they go to this deep dark place that’s hard to come back from. I think to myself that this would never happen to me, but these characters all feel like they’re infallible when they begin their story. It’s about not knowing what the answer is, but being brave enough to explore the different avenues that take people to extremes. If somebody does become radicalized we have to be brave enough to ask why. That’s the only way we can move forward, instead of becoming dismissive and defensive and saying “let’s build a wall.”
The playwright Ayad Akhtar invested heavily in each of the characters, which have been described as laudably complex.
B: There’s so many twists and turns. There are points with your character where the audience really loves them, and then you think to yourself, “just wait a second, wait until you hear what I’m going to say next.” It’s a testament to the writing that audience members go through a roller-coaster of emotions throughout.
K: There are so many layers to this play, and each time we rehearse it’s like peeling back an onion. There is no character that is one hundred percent right, or wrong. Things are going to be said throughout that will make you want to cringe. But everyone brings their own personal experience to the stage each time.
What can the audience expect by the end of the production?
B: At the end of the night, I’d like the audience to leave having sympathy and understanding for each other. Everybody has something that they do beautifully, so I would love for people to come out of it with open hearts, and thinking that they have more of an understanding about the subject.
K: I want people to leave having questions, because there really are no answers that will be provided. I want them to go back home and ask, “within my own group, my culture, what are our tribal beliefs about other cultures?” I’d like it open the door for deeper conversations.
Disgraced will be on stage at the Panasonic Theatre April 3 – 17, 2016.
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