“Mosque4Mosque”

[rating=3]Another World Premiere has hit a Chicago stage. This time at The Den Theatre as part of the season for About Face Theatre Company. For those of you familiar with About Face, part of who they are is a theater company that advances LGBTQ through stories that are educational and bring life as it is to the forefront. Their stories are “queer stories told by queer artists”  sharing them as well as celebrating their stories. The premiere of “Mosque4Mosque” written by Omar Abbas Salem takes us into an even less understood world, that of the Muslim queer.

Our hero in the story is Ibrahim ( a wonderful performance by Omer Abbas Salem as he tells us about what might be his true story). He is an Arab-American Muslim. He resides with his mother, (Rula Gardenier) a widow and his younger sister, Lena ( played to perfection by Gloria Imseih Petrelli). As he is 30 something and still not married his mother keeps reminding him that the time is now. His mother still believes in tradition of their homeland and feels that perhaps it is time for an arranged marriage. Ibrahim has kept in the closet although there are hints that his little sister knows.

Lena has her own secrets and her big brother protects her from Mother as well. She doesn’t wear traditional garb to school, but rather dresses like the other kids and as we learn is even a member of the pom-poms. Her brother puts clothes in a bag so she can dress appropriately before entering the house each day. It is a story of secrets. While he does find a man to love, Sara(mom) tries to get into his head and signs him up for a gay dating service. Perhaps an arrangement can be made.

The partner that he finds is James, an American attorney that truly falls in love with Ibrahim. They have great sex, but as we see in the story, they are not 100% true. At least Ibrahim is not. He still thinks about other men and worries that he is making a mistake. In fact, James ( deftly handled by Jordan Dell Harris) has to work hard to get his lover to even say those three little words, “I love you”!.

There is one additional actor, Rom Barkhordar who plays three roles, each one being important to the story and each one being different. Directed by Sophiyaa Nayar on a set designed by  Steven Abbott, there were a few confusing portions. In using one set and making it be several areas and places, there were some confusing times. The home represented a Mosque a few times, then it was their home and then it was his office, and later, James’ apartment and I think his office as well. Since the only change was tilting the dining room table and moving chairs, one needed to truly focus on where they really were.

There were also confusing times after Sara went back home to Syria and was doing a ZOOM call. We should have seen two computers to get the true meaning to us. This also happened when she was on the phone with the character being played by Barkhordar ( not sure which one). They were on the phone and he asked if he could sit down and sat at her table. Confused a few people I would think!

This is a small theater and a massive set. The audience sits on two sides with the action in the center. The actors are not wearing microphones and in some cases they did not reach to the last row of seats, causing a muffled word or two. They also said something to Alexa every so often and when she played music  it made it harder to hear the dialogue. Back when I was doing theater we were always taught to make sure we could be heard in the back of the house. They should go back to this as those people pay for their tickets too.

On the tech side, the costumes by Jos N. Banks  were realistic, the lighting (Conchita Avita) and the props (Lonnae Hickman) all worked. The fight direction (or is it choreography) by Gaby Labotka and the intimacy choreography (or is it direction) by Kirsten Baity appeared quite realistic. The show runs two hours including a 15 minute intermission. I for one think the show might have a stronger impact if cut down to 100 minutes without an intermission, allowing the process to not be interrupted.

“Mosue4Mosque” will continue at The Den Theatre thru December 17th with performances as follows:

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  7:30 p.m.

Saturdays  3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sundays  3 p.m.

Check the website for holiday info Thanksgiving

The Den Theatre is located at 1331 N. Milwaukee Avenue

www.thedentheatre,com or www.aboutfacetheatre.com

Tickets range from Pay what you can to $35

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Mosque4Mosque”.