The latest production of playwright Kareem Fahmy’s “American Fast” brings its A-game to Theater Alliance in Southwest D.C., with a pensive exploration of identity, faith, and a college athlete’s unshakable love for basketball.
Now showing through April 13, the coming-of-age production follows the intricate journey of senior basketball star Khady (played by Gigi Cammarato), an ambitious player of Muslim faith who’s attempting to navigate the complexities of competing in the NCAA March Madness tournaments during the season of Ramadan.
The ninth and holy month of the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is when Muslims engage in fasting, reflection, and spiritual devotion, while abstaining from food and beverages from dawn to dusk.
With just four characters and a pop-up nested in Theater Alliance, the D.C. debut of “American Fast” exerts a master class in the nuances of faith identity, gender equity, and religious diversity within the arts.
“So much of the play to me when I wrote it is to try to break down…the monolithic idea of what Muslim people are, or what Islam is,” said Fahmy in a pre-show discussion on March 23. “Three of the characters are Muslim, and the way they practice their religion, the way they talk about their religion, the way they feel about their religion is entirely different, and that, in and of itself, is my biggest goal.”
The son of devout Muslims and Middle Eastern immigrants, Fahmy moved to New York from Montreal, Canada in 2003–a time he noted was condemend with “anti-Muslim sentiment” in America following the al Qaeda-led terrorist attacks now widely known as 9/11 (September 11, 2001).
Fahmy admitted it was the push of other local playwrights who insisted it was time to “change the narrative” on the Islamic experience.
He has since dedicated his art to tackling representation and “dismantling” the preconceived beliefs of Middle Easterners and Muslims, leveraging inclusivity in casting such as half-Arabian lead Cammarato and Syrian actress Raghad Makhlouf, who plays Suzan, Khady’s devout Muslim mother from the Middle East.
“With the sound design and the Arabic music, and Suzan [being from Egypt], it felt like the whole space magically took me on a journey to the past. I felt free, like a shift has happened where I felt at home,” Makhlouf told The Informer. “I hope people coming to the theater will see a specific human being with a specific history, but also a lens…into that culture and that world.”
Ambition vs. Faith: ‘The Questioning of God’
Cammarato’s character spends most of the play spiritually conflicted in the war between ambition and faith, which is only troubled by an assertive Coach (played by Renee Elizabeth Wilson), and male standalone actor Travis Xavier, who portrays Gabe, an African American lapsed Muslim.
With characters addressing topics like what it is to be a “good Muslim,” Fahmy said the play speaks to a much larger conversation about the expectations that come with being of a certain faith, especially for women and communities of color.
“I think people respond negatively to people who strive for excellence and who are ambitious when they’re from under and misrepresented communities. It’s perceived in a different way, so this story wouldn’t be the story if Khady was a white athlete, or a non-Muslim athlete,” Fahmy explained.
Meanwhile, candid monologues and soul-stirring scenes between Cammarato and Makhlouf showcased other perceptual challenges among women of color. Makhlouf spoke of the universal “angry woman,” while both leads addressed the often taboo conversations that center religion, such as internal struggles with God in times of grievance, and how youth connect with faith beyond parental teachings.
Cammarato told The Informer that, while she wasn’t raised Muslim like her on-stage persona, she has always been “deeply spiritual,” and resonates with the journey to redefine spirituality for oneself. She commends Fahmy’s artistic approach to ground the story in the human aspects of life, such as grief, family and “the questioning of God,” as opposed to appealing to a certain demographic.
“This [play] doesn’t exclude anyone…and it shows that through an underrepresented story that we often don’t hear from which brings that identity into the conversation. It shows that the story belongs in the American theater, because it’s an American story,” said Cammarato.
Aside from pivoting stereotype narratives, Kahmy strives to use “American Fast” as a host for communal conversations about reshaping spirituality and faith perceptions for individuals of all belief or non-belief systems. He noted how theater art can offer an “immediate personal lived experience” to audiences, and “American Fast” in particular aims to spur the avoided conversations about what faith is in a person’s life.
Washingtonian and playwright Kymone Freeman attended the opening weekend matinee, and told The Informer he personally took to the topic of struggling to see God amid times of grief.
Freeman, who does not practice a religion, attributes some of his battle with the ideals of faith to “a fascist Trump regime,” suffrage of women and African Americans, and the “ugliness of wars” that continuously plagues the state of America.
He particularly highlighted Cammarato’s performance, saying, “I felt like she was taking my words out of my own mouth, because I always felt that way.”
“People always want to praise God, but nobody ever wants to blame God,” Freeman told The Informer. “This was a woman of color, and she was struggling. Even though she had the American dream and had it all, it wasn’t enough, because it wasn’t right within.”
The We Act Radio broadcaster looks forward to publishing his own review of the provocative portrayal, and considers it a “must-see,” especially for young women on behalf of its motion to challenge gender equity.
For his final thoughts, Freeman referenced a conversation between actor Matt Damon and the late Louis James Lipton, former producer and talk show host for Inside the Actors Studio, who often posed the question, ‘If there’s a heaven, what do you want to hear God say to you?’ to guests during his round of questions.
“[Damon] said, in ‘God’s voice,’ of course: ‘There’s an explanation for all the pain and suffering in the world. Come to the back. Let’s have a drink and I will explain it to you,’” Freeman shared. “I think this play attempts to answer that.”