DIFFERENT ‘DREAMS’
COMEDIAN ALAUDIN ULLAH COMES TO THE OLD GLOBE WITH A SOLO SHOW THAT CONTRASTS HIS OWN IMMIGRANT STORY WITH THAT OF HIS BANGLADESH-BORN PARENTS
Aonetime stand-up comic seen on Comedy Central, HBO and MTV, theater artist Alaudin Ullah considers himself “the guy least likely to be advocating for Muslims like me.” But he’s calling on his comedy roots to do just that in his solo performance piece “Dishwasher Dreams” at the Old Globe.
“When I make fun of people’s perceptions of Muslims and the microaggressions, that’s the beauty of comedy,” said Ullah, whose 90-minute show is now playing in the Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre. “When someone makes you laugh, it automatically changes the state of your brain.”
Ullah, who says that “growing up Muslim is the Marines of religions,” asserts that “Muslims have a sense of humor like no one else.”
His autobiographical show is also a tribute to his Bangladeshborn parents and an evocation of the immigrant experience. Portraying multiple characters in the autobiographical play, Ullah’s recollections span life in his home country through the years in Spanish Harlem when he fell in love with stand-up (“I’m like the baby of George Carlin and Richard Pryor,” he says) to his L.A. years that found him disillusioned with the portrayals of Muslims in film and on television.
Currently the playwright-inresidence at the Public Theater in New York, Ullah said that just as seeing and meeting Carlin changed his life and propelled him into stand-up, seeing Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s one-person play “Lackawanna Blues” led him in another direction.
“I felt theater was pulling me in,” he said. “I was hooked, I was like a junkie. I wanted to be a part of it.”
Castillo Theatre in New York staged the world premiere of “Dishwasher Dreams” five years ago. Its West Coast premiere at the Old Globe is being directed by Chay Yew, longtime artistic director at the Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago. He famously directed Lauren Yee’s “Cambodian Rock Band” at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Rep in 2018 and again a year later at La Jolla Playhouse.
Yew has directed more than two dozen solo shows.
“I’ve always loved them,” Yew said of solo shows, “because they’re the purest political theater. You’re actually speaking to
the audience, pulling out your beating heart and presenting it to an audience every night.”
When working with Ullah on “Dishwasher Dreams,” Yew recalled going “a little deeper with him and asking hard questions, like about his complex relationship with his mother and father. Going deeper was immensely important. The best kind of solo shows are painful to watch and are acts of courage. It’s a form of testimonial.”
In “Dishwasher Dreams,” Ullah’s observations and characterizations are accompanied by original live music performed by Avirodh Sharma on tabla. A drummer himself who studied with Charlie Christian while living in Harlem, Ullah said he was inspired to incorporate musical accompaniment in his own show by “Lackawanna Blues,” which featured onstage acoustic guitar.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, he’s playing Delta blues to monologues. How was this possible?’ ” Ullah said.
Yew said the percussion onstage “gives you a feel of Bangladesh, yet it’s so rhythmic you sometimes forget it’s South Asian. It propels moments. It propels scenes. It’s not melodic enough that it manipulates your emotions.”
For Ullah, “Dishwasher Dreams” is about bridging two existences.
“Barry (Edelstein, the Old Globe’s artistic director) said when you watch it you forget that I’m Bengali. Actually, I’m about as Bengali as Pee-wee Herman. I was there at the birth of hip-hop and punk rock. At the same time I had my mom doing the prayers. I was marinating these two worlds.
“I feel that way about my career and my life: I’m a quintessential American. I just happen to have parents who are Bangladeshi. When you see me perform, I’m as American as anyone who’s out there.”