Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith

Exasperated with his three Americanized kids, Kamal, an Egyptian immigrant, refers to them as exhibits 1, 2 and 3. Often, that's just how playwright El Guindi treats his characters, as specimens of immigrant culture to instruct a presumably nonmigrant audience. There's feisty feminist daughter, angry atheist son and confused homosexual second son, all torn between American independence and the values of their parents: stern but loving father and devoted but not-budging mother. With so many hot-button, Muslims-in-America issues crammed into one play (set during Ramadan, no less), the characters speak too articulately, as if standing in for a very eloquent author. Here's the irony with much ethnicity-driven theater: As educational tools, characters become didactic mouthpieces instead of the complex human beings we're being taught they are.

Yet when El Guindi steps away from the lectern and lets his characters speak for themselves, they become more alive, less schooled. And Carden and his fine set of actors easily inhabit the true to life. In particular, Monica Lopez shines as the conflicted daughter Huwaida; her tentative meeting with her intended, Murad (Adam Bute does bashful just-so), rings with truths about two uncertain young people taking on life—not just the topic of arranged marriage in the U.S. today. At its best, Ten Acrobats deals with a Muslim family; at its worst, the Muslim family. Fortunately, the scale tips toward the former to win us over.—Novid Parsi