‘The Who & the What’: Theater review

The daughter of a Pakistani immigrant writes what she knows — and what she knows will hurt her father. That’s the premise of Ayad Akhtar’s smart and taut, but familiar, drama The Who & the What at LCT3, housed at the Claire Tow Theater at Lincoln Center. It’s the same theater where the writer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2012 play, Disgraced,” set to open on Broadway in September, premiered. Afzal (Bernard White) is a widower who moved to Atlanta, drove a cab and eventually became the owner of a fleet of taxis. He’s also raised two bright, American-born daughters. Zarina (Nadine Malouf) is an Ivy-educated author who’s at a standstill in her book about “gender politics” and the unfair veil over Islamic women. Mahwish (Tala Ashe) wants to marry her longtime boyfriend but can’t wed until her big sis does, per Muslim tradition.