‘Enemies’ you want to get close to

In the Golden Thread Productions show, Mohsen (Kunal Prasad) is about to get interviewed on television by Earl (Dale Albright) regarding his trendy new book on the Middle East.

The newcomer is all smiles at first, and his knowledge about Mohsen and his book surprises and disarms the interviewee.

[...] just as the makeup man’s knowledge starts to seem a little too deep for that of a mere fan of the book — he can cite what Mohsen has said in multiple media appearances — he starts to cake Mohsen’s face with pasty white foundation and, eventually, the hot pink lip, nose and cheek accents a clown would wear.

[...] a writer or public figure can never tell a story about Arab Americans or discuss Islam devoid of context.

If Mohsen is so readily vulnerable to predation, to public humiliation, aren’t we all?

[...] the rest of Yussef El Guindi’s play, whose West Coast premiere opened Monday, Oct. 31, under the direction of Torange Yeghiazarian, is just as smart, daring and well constructed.

For a play about ideas, the kind of urgent ideas that don’t make it to American stages often enough, its debaters are just as complex and fleshed out as the ideas themselves.

Unlike so many male playwrights, he never forces Noor to smile through debasement no actual smart woman would brook, nor does he make her a saint.