[After] the first reading, several people told him they’d recognized their own (Irish, Jewish, Southern Baptist) tumultuous family backgrounds in the piece. To El Guindi this was welcome evidence he’d written what he’d intended: “a big American immigrant story.”
By my definition, Ten Acrobats in an Amazing Leap of Faith is good theatre. It is intelligent, beautifully written, and entertaining. The fact that it also humanizes a Muslim-American family is, sad to say, quite a feat in today's political climate.
"The voices in the play are voices I've heard all my life," [playwright Yussef El Guindi] said. "I’d always wanted to write a play that dealt with the Muslim (as well as Arab) immigrant experience in this country. Ten Acrobats was my stab at that."
An Egyptian immigrant family struggles to find their place within American society, navigating inter-generational conflict, their Islamic faith and the values of two cultures. In evoking universal themes of faith, culture, belonging and desire, it adds a new chapter to the American immigrant narrative as captured on stage.
True to Silk Road Theatre Project’s mission of showcasing playwrights of Asian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean backgrounds whose works address themes relevant to the people of the Silk Road and their Diaspora communities, Ten Acrobats doesn’t shy away from controversial subject matter either.
Yussef el Guindi’s play dares to ask questions, questions about religious observance, about belief, about living in a secular society, about being Muslim in an overwhelmingly Christian country.
The theater's founders think the play, incidentally set during Ramadan, is groundbreaking because it centers on a loving Muslim-American family and doesn't cater to the usual stereotypes of harems, belly dancers, terrorists and sinister despots.
Though Ten Acrobats does dip into finding similarities between cultures, it also portrays a cultural theme not often brought to the public eye before 9/11. Khoury said feedback from all the productions has been positive, with audience members thanking them for opening their eyes to new perspectives and ideas.
