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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. The Invisible Hand Also see Susan's reviews of The Crucible and Titus Andronicus
Nick Bright (Thomas Keegan) is being held by Bashir (Maboud Ebrahimzadeh) and his assistant Dar (Ahmad Kamal) in a bleak concrete cell (designed in detail by Luciana Stecconi). They believe he is a high-value target and have set his ransom at $10 million. Bright knows he isn't important enough for his bank to send that much money, so he makes a counter offer to his captors: he will teach them about commodity trading, allowing Bright to earn his ransom while helping Bashir finance his cause. Director Michael Bloom lays out the dramatic situations without skirting the ambiguities involved. Bashir and Dar are working on behalf of Imam Saleem (Mueen Jahan), whose organization provides community services such as health care at the community level while nationwide services are weak or nonexistent, but can he be trusted with large amounts of money? Bashir—who grew up in London but returned to his parents' homeland to join the struggle—blames the instability of the Pakistani government on the interference of the U.S. and other countries, but soon discovers the intoxication that comes from making a fortune out of virtually nothing. Akhtar, a Pakistani American who received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for his earlier play Disgraced, uses this situation to spotlight the shifting alliances among countries and factions and what happens when "currency is king." Bright lays out the ways the U.S. helped organize international financial markets in the 1940s, while Bashir talks about how the U.S.-backed, anti-Soviet mujahideen in Afghanistan during the 1980s morphed into al-Qaida and attacked the U.S. on September 11, 2001. Ebrahimzadeh and Keegan are the twin anchors of the production, but the four actors work together as a unit and no one can really stand alone.
Olney Theatre Center |
