Source: Theatreport.com.

Feroza’s grandmother (Uma Nagarshetti) performs a Parsi ceremony to remove the evil eye from Feroza’s boyfriend David (Luke Eddy) as Feroza looks on. Photo taken by Frank White.

Stages Repertory Theatre celebrates South Asian artists and traditions and illuminates elements of the little-known Zoroastrian religion with the U.S. Premiere production of Bapsi Sidhwa’s An American Brat, based on Sidhwa’s novel of the same name. The result of several years of collaboration between Stages and Sidhwa, the play explores the tensions that arise in a Parsi family when their daughter Feroza leaves Pakistan to attend college in the United States. Now she’s fallen in love with an American — and he’s Jewish…

Suddenly Feroza’s family is getting more than they bargained for, including a lesbian roommate and a domineering Jewish grandmother. The resulting clash is a humorous, touching, insightful look at the common threads of family life.

An American Brat is at once highly comic and achingly poignant — it demonstrates why Bapsi Sidhwa is considered one of the world’s great writers, Stages’ Producing Artistic Director Kenn McLaughlin said. «I love the fresh perspective An American Brat brings to the age-old conflict between generations. The very real tension of religion, fundamental beliefs, family and love could not be more relevant, and while the play deals with the issues of a very specific Parsi family, it’ s pretty safe to say that everyone is going to find a bit of their own family in it.»

Director Brad Dalton shares this sense of the play’s relevance. «An American Brat examines what it means to live in a world saturated with a variety of different religions, and their often-conflicting viewpoints on the “proper” way to live your life», he said. «This is the unfortunate basis for so much violence throughout the world, but Bapsi manages to tell this story with a tremendous amount of humour and a slyly irreverent tone which gently pokes fun at the mishaps and misunderstandings of Parsees trying to figure out their place in the larger world.»

Originally produced under the title Sock ‘Em With Honey at the Kali Theatre in London in 2003, An American Brat received a series of readings at Stages following its premiere. The script has undergone significant revisions while in development at Stages, and Houston audiences have the opportunity to experience a version of the play that has not been seen anywhere else in the world.

The Playwright

Bapsi Sidhwa

Called “Pakistan’s finest English-language novelist” by the New York Times, Bapsi Sidhwa is also the author of Cracking India, Crow Eaters, The Bride, and Water. Her work has been translated into several languages, and Cracking India was adapted into the film Earth by Canadian director Deepa Mehta. Sidhwa’s latest novel, Water, is based on the Oscar-nominated film by Mehta. Sidhwa has received the Bunting Fellowship from Radcliffe, the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, the Sitara-i-Imtiaz, an NEA grant and the LiBeraturepreis in Germany, and has taught at Columbia University, the University of Houston, Mount Holyoke College, and Brandeis. Born in Karachi and raised in Lahore, Sidhwa now resides in Houston.

Brad Dalton (The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Nickel & Dimed, The Spitfire Grill) returns to Stages to direct following his recent work on of La Cenerentola at Houston Grand Opera, and Canadian film star Rahnuma Panthaky joins the diverse cast of new faces as Feroza’s mother Zareen.

CAST:
Zareen..................... Rahnuma Panthaky
Cyrus....................... Sundy Srinivasan
Feroza...................... Arzan Gonda
David....................... Luke Eddy
Mumma.................... Uma H. Nagarsheth
Esther...................... Marjorie Carroll
Jo............................. Alison Coriell
Bunny....................... TBD

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