Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – A pair of psychological thrillers Off-Broadway: Sylvia Khoury’s SELLING KABUL & Hillary Miller’s PREPAREDNESS

• By drediman
• December 8, 2021
• No Comments

In recent days, I had the opportunity to attend a pair of psychological thrillers currently playing Off-Broadway. Here are my thoughts, as always.

SELLING KABUL
Playwrights Horizons
Through December December 23

This week, Syliva Khoury’s Selling Kabul (RECOMMENDED) opened Off-Broadway at Playwright’s Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Set in Kabul in 2013 against the backdrop of the withdrawal of the U.S. military and the rise of the Taliban, the piece tells the story of an Afghan family struggling to navigate the dangerous and volatile political landscape while harboring a U.S. sympathizer. Ms. Khoury’s new play is carefully and expertly plotted, building in intensity with surety and skill. Even if some subtlety is sacrificed – particularly as it relates to character development – in favor of heightening paranoia and circumstantial tension, the tradeoff is a calculated one. Thankfully, I was gripped throughout, despite some rare instances of incredulity, which director Tyne Rafaeli does well to camouflage in her detailed, tantalizingly-paced production. Suffice to say, Ms. Khoury’s play was designed to induce anxiety, and it successfully does so thanks largely to the production’s set of emotionally exposed performances. Indeed, the latter series of scenes leading up to the work’s conclusion are nothing short of explosive.

PREPAREDNESS
The Bushwick Starr at HERE Arts Center
Through December 11

Then there’s The Bushwick Starr’s production of Hillary Miller’s Preparedness (SOMEWHAT RECOMMENDED), another psychological thriller that’s currently wrapping up performances at HERE Arts Center. Ms. Miller’s new play tells the story of an underfunded college theater department whose staff is required to undergo self-defense training. It goes without saying that the training session devolves into threatening pandemonium, highlighting the unreconcilable division among the educators. The production has been directed by Kristjan Thor, who is perhaps best known for his BLACKOUT, an extreme immersive experience that has frightened the pants off of willing participants across the country for more than a decade. Given Mr. Thor’s involvement in the play, I was expecting to be more unsettled and terrorized than I was. Instead, Preparedness registers only mildly disturbing. The writing also lacks the observant nuance of other similar naturalistic “fumbling adults” plays, namely Miles for Mary and Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie, both courtesy of The Mad Ones. Nevertheless, the acting from the game cast is very good all around, and they imbue the play with a gently satiric tone that I found both amusing and on point.