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A DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE TITLE
Full-Length Play, Drama / 2w, 3m
Kareem Fahmy
An Iranian father and daughter’s paths intersect with a French-Canadian librarian in a town straddling Vermont and Quebec. What borders will they cross?
Nothing much ever happens in the sleepy Haskell Free Library that straddles the border of Vermont and Quebec. But when an Iranian father and daughter, separated by the “Muslim ban,” begin using the library as a meeting place, the French-Canadian librarian, an American border patrol agent and a local teenager find their quiet lives suddenly full of excitement and consequence. Inspired by true events, A Distinct Society is a touching and funny play about the many things – family, food, art, love and politics – that can either divide or unite us.
The world premiere of A Distinct Society was originally produced at Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, in January 2023.
PEYMAN GILANI – an Iranian man in his fifties. A cardiac surgeon. Speaks with a Persian accent. He is grounded.MANON DESJARDINS – a French-Canadian woman in her forties. The head librarian at the Haskell Free Library. Speaks with a Québécois accent. She is enigmatic.DECLAN SHEEHAN – a fifteen-year-old Canadian boy. The child of Northern Irish immigrants to Québec. A high school student. Speaks with the slightest hint of a Canadian accent. He is lonely.BRUCE LAIRD – a Black man in his mid-to-late thirties. A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. He is charming.SHIRIN GILANI – an Iranian woman in her midtwenties. A medical student and Peyman’s daughter. Her Persian accent is milder than her father’s. She is forthright.
“At turns, heartwarming, funny, frightening and sad.” – Front Row Reviewers
“A Distinct Society is a tale of fundamentally decent people faced with an impossible situation and striving somehow to navigate it anyway as best they can, and that’s what makes it so compelling.” – The Mercury News
“Kareem Fahmy brings together five people and weaves a tale that is, at turns, heartwarming, funny, frightening and sad… Fahmy’s adept story-telling brings all of these layers together into a particularly powerful message. His perspective creates a poignant voice needing to be heard…” – Front Row Reviewers
“Fahmy’s words…are a beautifully balanced equation of the confusion, anger, and raw emotion of bigotry and nationalism” – Third Coast Review
A Distinct Society – Pioneer Theatre Trailer
A Distinct Society – Interview with Kareem Fahmy
Kareem Fahmy is a playwright and theatre director from Sherbrooke, Quebec. His plays have been produced off-Broadway and at theatres across America. He received the 2022 Woodward/Newman Playwriting Award (for American Fast), a MacDowell Fellowship, the Janet Sloane Literature ...