←Recommendations of A Distinct Society

We recently produced A DISTINCT SOCIETY in Dayton, OH. To a person, our audiences responded positively to the material, reflecting on it's timely nature, the humanity with which the individual experiences and stories are reflected. Do this play. You will be glad you did for your artists, your audience, and your community. It's a great story that needs to be shared.

A DISTINCT SOCIETY celebrates our shared humanity through food, music, language and laughter. When a quiet library on the border between Vermont and Quebec turns into the unlikely meeting place for desperate families to reunite, the stakes are sky-high and each of the five characters is uniquely implicated. This play is gripping, heartbreaking, and hopeful. This is what the best of theatre has to offer – a chance to realize that what connects us is stronger than what divides us.

A Distinct Society reveals such a society and creates one too. Five characters of different nature, heritage and situation talk in seamless language. Language that is seamless but fraught to absurd situations from 5 minute visits to sharing food to surrendering passports and life. The play gets better and better as is goes along revealing the characters to themselves and each other. Bravo.

A brilliant play about the power of family in the face of cruel legislation.

A Distinct Society by Kareem Fahmy was a finalist for NNPN's 2020 National Showcase of New Plays.

In their own tiny corner of the universe, five very different people trying desperately to understand one another come together and fall apart. Fahmy slowly and lovingly traces the boundaries between them and asks us to judge whether they are insurmountable.

This play tugged at my heartstrings. A uniquely woven ensemble piece that takes place during a tormented era when our world is in strict border surveillance – in this instance a border between Vermont and Quebec. Kareem draws extremely likable characters to make individual choices that are best for their specific instances which in turn can cause unanticipated grief for one another. Alliances are built and broken, borders are straddled, and family connections persist and prevail.

There are some plays you hear, or read, or see a reading of and they tug at your heart over and over again. I have fallen deeply in love with this play. For me, at the heart of A DISTINCT SOCIETY is a fraught Iranian daughter-father relationship unlike any other I have seen on stage. It is moving and heartbreaking. As fragmented a society we ourselves live in, I believe this play can connect audience members and open eyes, reach hearts. Can we, in our divided country, and world, lift up the tape that divides our own library?

A DISTINCT SOCIETY is smart, moving, with plenty of room for theatricality and play. A great exploration of xenophobia, family, and ley lines of strength and power. Simultaneously international and deeply local, especially when centered in a library---humanity's symbolic site for enduring, collective knowledge. We look forward to producing this play when we return to live performance.

Kareem Fahmy’s A DISTINCT SOCIETY is a powerful and necessary play for our time. Set in a small library on the U.S./Canada border, the story eloquently demonstrates how the political is personal and vice-versa. Mr. Fahmy manages to tell a gripping tale that’s populated with rich characters, engaging dialogue, and tremendous emotional and thematic resonance. As a Persian-American, I am grateful to Mr. Fahmy for illuminating the plights and struggles of Middle Eastern immigrants in such a heartfelt manner. A DISTINCT SOCIETY celebrates fellowship over fear, people over policies, and humanity over hate.