‘Terrorist’ melds humor and politics
For writer Saïd Sayrafiezadeh and his upcoming production, “Autobiography of a Terrorist,” the ambivalence of political identity is simply an honest reflection of reality.
“Reading the play now after all these years, I can’t even remember what the hell I believed when I was writing it,” Sayrafiezadeh says of the work, originally written in 2004.
Sayrafiezadeh, a 48year-old writer and author, has often used his work to assess thorny ideological perspectives. His memoir, “When Skateboards Will Be Free,” parsed a political upbringing in Pittsburgh with his Jewish mother and his often-absent Iranian father, both dedicated members of the Socialist Workers Party. “Autobiography of a Terrorist,” running at Potrero Stage from Monday, April 17, to May 7, came out of an essay Sayrafiezadeh wrote in response to the Sept. 11 attacks, criticizing the history of American jingoism.
But in the transition to the stage, Sayrafiezadeh veered from the heavy-handed commentary and instead toward an artist’s selfreflection personified by a comedic manipulation of the theater form.
The entire play is based in breaking the fourth wall, as protagonist Saïd (Damien Seperi) directly addresses the audience about his life and place in America largely in relation to the Iran hostage crisis that began in 1979. Saïd, a loose replica of Sayrafiezadeh, and two other players enact what is mockingly labeled a “collage of scenes,” as Saïd intends to situate the pieces around a thesis of social commentary on American identity and xenophobia. But his agenda quickly falls apart when onstage infighting among his own cast and crew about the political undertones of the script undermine his planned polemics.
The ensuing chaos is simultaneously a comment on, and a way to provide, potentially incendiary views of 9/11, Sayrafiezadeh says, which felt intensely taboo at the time in the Bush era when the work was written. But more honestly, the symbolism of a pointedly political work gone awry takes aim at absolutist stances, including Sayrafiezadeh’s own.
Saïd “thinks he has some firm ground to stand on, but it’s actually constantly shifting,” Sayrafiezadeh says of the protagonist whose uncertainties mirror his own. “If an artist can’t really hold up the mirror to himself or herself, then I’m not so sure how authentic or viable any of their insights into other things can be. It’s got to be a double-edged sword, the critique.”
The play pokes fun at everyone, says its director Evren Odcikin, from the well-meaning liberal to its own producing company, Golden Thread, and its mission of inclusivity. Founded in 1996, Golden Thread was the first production company in the U.S. to focus solely on Middle Eastern content.
“Autobiography” and its meta mayhem fit appropriately with Golden Thread for illuminating the complex dimensions of Middle Eastern American identity.
“This play kind of deals with this pressure for those of us that come from any sort of identity, in this case specifically Middle Eastern identity, to have to speak articulately about what that experience is like, and then be able to stick to it 100 percent,” Odcikin says. “It doesn’t work that way. It’s complicated.”
This simplistic assumption has dogged Golden Thread. Executive Artistic Director Torange Yeghiazarian founded the company to provide a platform that had not existed for Middle Eastern voices, but its perceived badge of representation soon became weighty.
“After 9/11, there was
a national lens. There seemed to be an expectation that we would explain 9/11 or why it happened,” Yeghiazarian says. “There was this whole conversation of, ‘Why do they hate us?’ ”
Yeghiazarian faced such inquiries in interviews that ultimately appeared to twist her singular perspective.
“As a company, we became aware that now we are more visible nationally, and that comes with a responsibility,” Yeghiazarian says. “But also I think a bigger responsibility has always been and continues to be to the artistic voice that is true and organic in its own time.”
In the current political moment, Yeghiazarian sees their audience as “more galvanized and hungry for what we have to say.” And although “Autobiography” was indeed a product of the post-9/11 era, it arrives at Golden Thread in a new, but still thematically relevant, context via President Trump’s policies.
“When (Barack) Obama was president — and I can’t say definitively — but some of what is in the play might not have landed,” Sayrafiezadeh says. But xenophobia and Middle Eastern identity is as much a
part of cultural discourse now as it was 15 years ago.
Yet, while the prodiversity chorus appears comparatively louder now, especially in San Francisco, “Autobiography” avoids political grandstanding, instead reveling in chaotic humor. Comedy is more enjoyable, Sayrafiezadeh says, than what could have felt like a lecture.
And within the humor can come earnest self-examination, including from a San Francisco crowd that can at times feel dangerously self-congratulatory in its purportedly liberal identity, Yeghiazarian says.
But as for a central takeaway, “Autobiography” is suitably indeterminate like its protagonist’s own confused self.
“I imagine that the hope would be that (the audience) has a lot of fun and that it makes a lot of sense,” Sayrafiezadeh says after much thought. “Maybe that means that they somehow were able to see something from an angle they hadn’t seen before and they can understand its validity. I definitely have no intention of preaching to anyone.”
“After 9/11, there was a national lens. There seemed to be an expectation that we would explain 9/11 or why it happened. There was this whole conversation of, ‘Why do they hate us?’ ” Torange Yeghiazarian, founder of Golden Thread