CPT’s ‘I Call My Brothers’ offers a poignant portrait of next to normal

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics

 

Most of us take normal for granted.  In fact, we only give normal a second thought when it is abruptly disrupted.

 

For Amor, the protagonist in Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s cleverly conceived “I Call My Brothers,” normalcy is what he aspires to.  It is a fragile desire that is desperately sought-after and nearly attained until a car bomb goes off.

 

The suspect of the alleged terrorist attack, we learn, looks very much like Amor (Salar Ardebili), who is a young, bearded and affable Arab-American immigrant.  In the aftermath of the explosion, we see the world through Amor’s new-found self-conscious and increasingly paranoid perspective as all eyes seem to be staring at him with suspicious intent.  

 

Now he aspires to be inconspicuous.

 

For more of this review, go to www.clevelandjewishnews.com/columnists/.