I Call My Brothers
Opening Night: January 22, 2014
Closing: February 23, 2014
Theater: New Ohio Theatre
Something just happened. A car. An explosion. Amor has an important errand to run. He walks the city streets with his backpack and his cell phone, doing his best to blend in. But what looks normal? This funny, fierce show-down with paranoia takes us on an intense 24-hour journey inside one young man’s head, as the lines between reality and fantasy, criminal and victim, become increasingly unreliable. A bold new work about race, suspicion, and identity by acclaimed Swedish writer, Jonas Hassen Khemiri.
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February 2, 2014
When you’re a part of an embattled minority group, are you ever allowed to have a personal life that is not constantly invaded by pressing national issues? Can’t a man have his heart broken without it meaning something much more? These are two of the questions asked by I Call My Brothers, the American premiere of the latest play by Swedish author Jonas Hassen Khemiri, presented by The Play Company at the New Ohio Theatre. This intelligent and humorous adaptation (translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles) convincingly argues that the issues of identity, suspicion, and immigration are just as relevant to Americans as they are to Swedes.
READ THE REVIEWFebruary 2, 2014
I Call My Brothers is a tightly woven narrative of race-based paranoia, and it’s easy to see how its subject matter maintains cultural relevance across literary genres. The play chronicles twenty-four hours in the life of one man, Amor, following a car bombing. In the wake of the bombing, Amor has a simple (unrelated) errand to run but finds himself fighting a crippling paranoia as he travels through the city streets. As he processes the previous night’s horrific event, he also introduces the audience to neighborhood friends and family, trying to contextualize the bombing and suss out what it means for his Islamic identity in a Western city.
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February 3, 2014
I Call My Brothers, by the Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri, tracks a fraught 24 hours in the life of young Arab-American man as he runs errands in New York City. The play, mostly narrated by the protagonist, Amor (Damon Owlia), stokes suspense by intimating that the story will take a dark, dramatic turn. Perhaps Amor will be tragically mistaken for a terrorist. Or maybe his anxieties will get the better of him, and that knife in his pocket will come flashing out.
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February 3, 2014
In I Call My Brothers, playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri explores the racing mind of a young Muslim man following a car bombing in New York City, where he lives. (The original script is set in Stockholm, the playwright’s hometown; it has been amended for American audiences.) Amor, the protagonist, is out on a dance floor, drunk and having a good time, when the phone calls start coming in from his old friend, Shavi, apprising him of the news of a terrorist incident; listening to Shavi’s messages, Amor realizes that young men like himself will instantly become objects of suspicion.
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February 3, 2014
Amor is a laid-back dude. He likes dancing, is handy around the house, and, like most guys in their 20s, he crushes out on girls. There’s just one problem: Amor’s a dead ringer for the suspect in a car bombing. The beard and hoodie probably don’t help. In the follow-up to his devilishly clever 2011 comedy Invasion! playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri tracks Amor in the 24 hours following the explosions.
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