ROAR
At the Clurman Theater, 410 W. 42nd St.; (212) 239-6200. Through May 8.
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THEATER, like film, can open corners of experience at once strange and familiar.
In “Roar,” young Palestinian-American playwright Betty Shamieh has tried to grasp not the political but the human reality of her subjects, a Palestinian-American family in 1991 Detroit.
Sensitively directed by Marion McClinton, “Roar” catches the slow, subtle rhythms of everyday life.
The family runs a convenience store and lives above it – their sign, proclaiming “Ahmed’s Snacks and Liquor,” is glimpsed in reverse above a window. The apartment, beautifully designed by Beowulf Boritt, is richly evocative of the family’s culture, from the rugs on the wall to the family photos all over.
The mother, Karema (a superb Sarita Choudhury), is a hard, practical, loving woman who strives to keep poetry alive in her soul. Her husband, Ahmed (Joseph Kamal), a musician back in his homeland, toils at the store, all the while yearning for his former life.
At the story’s center is their daughter, Irene, a high-schooler who dreams of becoming a famous blues singer. Sherri Eldin brings Irene electrically to life, with all the passion and sulkiness and awkwardness and loveliness of adolescence.
Their life is unsettled and undone by the arrival of Ahmed’s sexy sister Hala (Annabella Sciorra), a gorgeous creature who’s had a series of affairs in the Middle East.
Shamieh has said she modeled this character on Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
But is Hala really a vamp or simply a nice woman caught in a steamy situation? Sciorra poses and struts around the apartment convincingly, but Shamieh’s story falls into desperate incoherence toward the end. She must learn to develop a sensible narrative drive to supplement her real gifts for character and mood.