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The Invisible Hand - New York Theatre Workshop
By Joel Benjamin Pulitzer Prize winner, Ayad Akhtar is on the New York boards again this season with a second Muslim-themed work, The Invisible Hand, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll at off-Broadway’s esteemed New York Theatre Workshop. Instead of the gracious façade of Disgraced, currently on Broadway, The Invisible Hand shows the nitty-gritty workings of the Muslim intifada with Western forces. The title, of course, refers to the metaphor used by 19th Century Scottish economist/philosopher Adam Smith, about the forces that drive economies, but here is used ironically, of not sardonically.
The Invisible Hand is a microcosmic look at a grim prison compound somewhere in Pakistan in which an American employee of a bank, Nick Bright (Justin Kirk) is being held hostage by a minor despotic cleric, Imam Saleem (Dariush Kashani). His minions are young, impressionable Dar (Jameal Ali) and take charge Bashir (Usman Ally) who do his every bidding. The Imam demands a ten million dollar ransom. Nick can only come up with three million, but, under duress, offers to turn it into the ten by using his knowledge of the currency markets and local political conditions.
In the course of the next few months Nick tutors the eager Bashir, a native of England and a recent recruit to Islamic terrorism. Bashir is a quick learner, absorbing all the details of how to manipulate the money markets online. The plot turns on Nick’s reasonably innocent observations on the intimate relationship between political scandal and upheavals and the money markets, a point that Bashir absorbs all too well. In the course of reviewing his progress with Nick, Bashir discovers how two-faced his hero, the Imam is, finding out that his hero has feet of very heavy clay. Bashir’s reaction to this betrayal is the driving force of the second half of The Invisible Hand. In the course of two hours there are beatings, near death experiences and a cleverly dark plot twist that affects the futures of all the characters, for better or worse. Akhtar knows the minds of his characters, but, as in Disgraced, they are all mere toxic pawns, hardly stimulating any empathy. It makes for a fascinating, but extremely irritating theater experience. Mr. Schmoll keeps the waves of action flowing. His cast is superb. Justin Kirk makes Nick, who could have been bland, into a worrisome figure. Jameal Ali is pathetic and frightening at the same time as Dar. Dariush Kashani carries off the two-faced Imam with aplomb, but it is Usman Ally’s Bashir who shines with his passion and charisma. The Invisible Hand – through January 4, 2015 
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