A library that straddles the border of the United States and Canada becomes a planned meeting place for an Iranian father and daughter during the Muslim ban in Kareem Fahmy’s “A Distinct Society” at Writers Theatre, June 22-July 23.
Performances are 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays.
Canadian-born playwright Fahmy, who directs the Writers Theatre production, grew up about 30 minutes from the Haskell Free Library, where his play takes place. “The town where it’s located is a town where I spent quite a bit of time as a kid,” Fahmy recalled. “But I’ve never actually been there.”
Then, around 2018, Fahmy read an article about the library. “The news article focused on this family from Iran that had come to the library to meet up because they had been separated by the executive order, commonly known as the Muslim ban,” the playwright related. “This family and other families like them had discovered that because the library exists in both countries at the same time, it functioned as this loophole to the ban.”
Fahmy reported that he thought it was a heartwarming story. “But then the article also was discussing how certain people were taking umbrage at the fact that these families were taking advantage of the loophole,” he said. Because he is of Egyptian descent, “I thought, what an interesting story to tell.”
All five characters in the play are fictionalized.
They include a father, who lives in Tehran, whose daughter is a medical student at Tufts University in Boston. She is in the United States on a student visa; he isn’t allowed in the country but is able to fly to Canada, to hopefully meet his daughter at the library.
“To represent the Canadian part of the story, there is a head librarian who has her own reasons for wanting to help the family,” Fahmy said. “There is also a teenage boy who goes to the library to read comic books, and a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer.
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Rom Barkhordar plays Peyman, the Iranian father who journeys to Canada in hopes of connecting with his daughter and determining if she is taking care of herself. He cooks Persian food and brings it to the library for her but they keep missing each other. Peyman later learns that she is not doing what he thought she was doing.
Barkhordar first became familiar with the show during the pandemic when he was asked to play the role of Peyman for an online reading.
“I read the script and I really enjoyed the humanity part of it,” Barkhordar said. “It was very topical because it dealt with the new Muslim ban immigration laws. It really told this humanistic story about the importance of family, about trying to make borders open even during times when certain countries were making that difficult. It’s rife with all kinds of things that any audience member is going to relate to at some point.”
When he learned that Writers Theatre was doing a full production of the show, Barkhordar was determined to reprise the role of Peyman. “I couldn’t feel more proud and privileged and honored to be part of it,” he said.
(Fact Box)
‘A Distinct Society’
When: June 22-July 23
Where: Writers Theatre, Alexandra C. and John D. Nichols Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe
Tickets: $35-$90
Information: 847-242-6000; writerstheatre.org
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.