I Call My Brothers OFF-BROADWAY REVIEWS

• NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW OF I Call My Brothers

  

  You’re a Suspect. That’s the Drill.

  Charles Isherwood

  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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• THEATERMANIA REVIEW OF I Call My Brothers

  

  I Call My Brothers

  Zachary Stewart

  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.

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• NEW YORK THEATRE REVIEW REVIEW OF I Call My Brothers

  

  Breanna Foister on I Call My Brothers presented by the Play Company

  Breanna Foister

  February 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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• NEW YORK POST REVIEW OF I Call My Brothers

  

  The paranoid mind-set of a terrorism suspect in ‘I Call My Brothers’

  Elisabeth Vincentelli

  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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• LIGHTING AND SOUND AMERICA REVIEW OF I Call My Brothers

  

  Theatre in Review: I Call My Brothers (The Play Company/New Ohio Theatre)

  David Barbour

  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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