Sons of the Prophet at Hampstead TheatreA prank (involving a deer effigy), results in the road-accident death of Joseph Douaihy's Lebanese-born Maronite Christian father. Living in rural Pennsylvania, he is left to guide his younger brother whilst coming to terms with the painful knee condition which has curtailed his promising athletics career and (since his father's death), the need to shelter their dependent elderly uncle.
If this were not enough, his depressed and lonely employer - a book publisher who could provide him with the medical insurance to treat those knees - isn't beneath stooping to bribery when she realises Joseph's family could be the source of the next best seller. Has anyone yet mentioned that both Joseph and his brother are gay, as is the ambitious regional TV newscaster who one evening finds himself at the same bus stop as the strapping former athlete with strappings!?!
Convoluted it may sound, but every player brings to the piece a juicy nugget of often hilarious human quirkiness and physical frailty, emotional usuriousness or fragility.
Irfan Shamji as Joseph, is central to the story's progression - although the narrative tends to twist in on itself for further examination rather than moving towards any sort of standard conclusion. Juliet Cowan as his manipulative, sensitivity-vacuum Gloria (the book publisher who could be evil, if she weren't so pathetically needy), keeps her character just the right side of pastiche to deliver some of the strongest, darkest and funniest moments in the play.
Bijan Sheibani directs the remainder of the excellent troupe with a naturalistic flow which enables everyone to shine and demonstrate their stagecraft.
