The Perfect Prayer at Cyrano's Playhouse

Immigrant parents, American born daughter, and 'real' American boyfriend. Novels, plays, movies about the cultural obstacles faced by immigrants are traditional American fare. Just different sets of immigrants over the years. In this play, the father is a devout Moslem from Egypt, the mother not quite so devout ("I pray in my own way"), the daughter caught between the rules of home and the rules outside. In this case, outside is Mississippi.

This production at Cyrano's in Anchorage is the West Coast premiere of the play and the playwright (Suehyla El-Attar) was up here last week. Just four actors (Jamie Pauley, Vivian Kinnaird, Marius Panzarella, and Anthony Oliva) powerfully conveyed the story, with gentle overlays we saw the daughter and boyfriend together in the foreground, while the parents, in the background, spoke the words embedded in Hadia's brain, fitting in beautifully with the foreground dialogue.


At Cyrano's it's clear - no photography during the performance - so luckily we got there pretty early so I could shoot the set and the new seats before they filled up. It's a very intimate theater.









We learn some basics of Islam very painlessly as the father teaches his university class on the subject and Hadia is a student in that class ("don't tell anyone I'm your father") where she meets Adam. It sounds a little contrived, but it worked seamlessly. The actors were all superb - the program says that local Arab/Americans worked with the actors to perfect their accents and their Arabic pronounciation.









Given the no picture rule, I had to make do with the photos on the wall outside the theater as we came out. I expect this is a play that people will hear about. It is funny and powerful and timely. Thanks to Sandy Harper at Cyrano's for recognizing the importance of this play and getting it to Anchorage.