Silk Road Rising Artistic Director Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani have announced the World Premiere of The Lake Effect, written by Rajiv Joseph, directed by Timothy Douglas. The Lake Effect runs April 23 - May 26, 2013, in Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St, Chicago. Press opening is Saturday, April 27 at 4:00 pm.
Read MoreAward winning Chicago-based theatre company, Silk Road Rising, is producing the World Premiere of Jeff Awards Recommended play, “The Lake Effect,” by Indian American playwright Rajiv Joseph.
Read MoreI enjoyed this refreshingly take on the effects of one’s life on their significant others. This world premier is a “must see” event.
Read More"Playfulness and seriousness intermingle to disturbing - and awfully satisfying - effect."
Read More“One of the best social commentaries in dramatic form of the past few years."
Read More"A slyly entertaining comedy with a sharp political edge...expresses confusion with remarkable clarity."
Read More"If you’ve ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East―somebody has."
Read MoreAn ever-shifting piece of all-engaging theater, [Invasion!] asks its audience to stay on their toes and take nothing for granted [...] Invasion! can be uniquely understood by each audience member based on their own experiences.
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Read MoreJonas Hassen Khemini’s Invasion! is a humorous but brutally in-your-face candid discourse on Arab identity in the world. Invasion! raucously cushions it’s slings and arrows spoofing American TV, borrowing format and content from shows like Friends and Saturday Night Live. The four person ensemble of Kamal Hans, Amira Sabbagh, Glenn Stanton and Omer Abbas Salem are merciless as they poke fun at the images of typical Arabs in America by sharing the concept of Abulkasem, the icon of bad behavior, a terrorist who put fear in the hearts of everyone around him. For everyone who has a hard time communicating, a fear of foreigners, or just needs a good laugh, Invasion! delivers from a depth of perspective rarely explored in the United States. Invasion!, with its stunning cast of original artists, is a must see.
Read MoreSilk Road Rising’s production of Invasion! is a luridly poignant piece that is not only alarming and grappling, but the talent behind the work (both on stage and off) is engaging and deserves an audience.
Read More[Invasion!] is a provocative play that will make some people squirm in their seats, as they should!, but it is essential viewing.
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Read MoreA blistering commentary on the dangerous power of stereotypes. Jonas Hussan Khemiri‘s Invasion! is a challenging kaleidoscope of a play, a whirling, non-linear mash-up of chameleonic characters, charged situations and provocative ideas.
Read MoreWithin the first ten minutes, this show establishes itself as unconventional… startlingly so.
Read More[Ultimately] Invasion! delivers a theatrical treat. The piece proves to be provocative, daring and insightful. This show is worthy of an audience.
Read MoreObie-award winning “Invasion!” is a powerful and timely exposé of ethnic and racial profiling, and of that well-worn path of shortcuts in thinking that fall under the rubric of stereotype.
Read MoreAs malleable as the material, Anna Bahow’s subversive staging for Silk Road Rising keeps it surreal—and toxically familiar. The cast—Kamal Hans, Amira Sabbagh, Glenn Stanton, and Omer Abbas Salem—inhabit their careful caricatures with heart, charm and zest.
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Read MoreThe refractory Invasion! is a meditation on the powers of language and skin color...Khemiri also plays with the idea of an Arab-sounding name—Abulkasem—taking on a life of its own as it's transmuted from one speaker to another like a game of Telephone, eventually becoming the moniker of a terrorist who may or may not really exist.
Read MoreSilk Road Rising certainly deserves praise for tackling such a challenging work and performing it so well.
Read More[The play] blends the classic nesting-stories structure of "The Arabian Nights" with contemporary riffs on the psychic damages incurred through racial and ethnic profiling. The result [...] is a clever and sometimes-wrenching kaleidoscopic journey through the looking-glass of prejudice, fear and internalized self-loathing that ends with an indelible and horrifying erasure of identity.
Read More“Where politicians and diplomats fail, artists and storytellers may yet succeed,” says Silk Road Rising founding artistic director Jamil Khoury.
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