STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS BY KIRSTEN SHULTZ

A dinner party among friends turns into a powder keg revolving around racial and ethnic prejudices that even progressive circles try to sweep under the carpet in Ayad Akhtar’s “Disgraced.”

You can sit in on this thought-provoking look at Islamophobia and personal and cultural identities when The Liberty Theatre Company presents the Pulitzer Prize-winning play from Friday, Feb. 16, through Saturday, March 2.

Amir, played by Ash T, and Emily, played by Naomi McDougall Jones, appear to have a charmed life—initially.

And—get this!!!!—the play will be presented in the venerable Liberty Theatre in Hailey, thanks to the theater’s owner Logan Frederickson working with local officials to get the building approved for use.

The play, which made its Broadway debut in 2014, is set in the Upper East Side apartment of New York lawyer Amir, an American-born Muslim who works on mergers and acquisitions. There, he and his wife Emily, an up-and-coming artist who focuses on Islamic themes in her art, seemingly lead a charmed life.

But Amir’s quest to keep his Muslim identity closeted for the sake of his career is challenged when his nephew Abe becomes concerned about a local imam whom he believes has been imprisoned on trumped-up charges of financing terrorists.

The case becomes dinner conversation when Jory, a work colleague and an African-American, and her Jewish husband Isaac, join them for dinner. And tensions mount as the conversation turns to Islamic and Judaic tradition, racial profiling, the Taliban, 9-11 and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Joe Lavigne has created a very livable facsimile of an Upper East Side apartment on The Liberty Theatre stage.

“In my mind, it’s one of the greatest plays written,” said Naomi McDougall Jones, who plays Emily and who serves as the Liberty Theatre Company’s artistic director. “It’s so well-crafted. And what’s beautiful about it is that it has humans interacting with one another. A lot of it is very funny. But, at the same time, it tackles deep important issues like what it means to have a country where people are coming from other backgrounds with different cultural identities.”

“The story’s relevance is undeniable,” said television and theater actor Ash T, an award-winning actor who’s appeared on such shows as “Better Call Saul.” Ash T plays the role of Amir in the play. “It tackles the issues that persist in our globalized world.”

Sami Bass, who co-directs the play with New York-based Catherine Eaton, notes that the play depicts not just our vulnerability as humans but how we can connect through our differences.

“Something I really love and value is that nobody’s right and nobody’s wrong in this play,” added McDougall Jones. “It’s an extraordinary perspective to have this conversation, particularly in a time when things are so black and white and polarized.”

Young Abe, played by Marvin Youssif, embraces his Muslim-American heritage in a way Amir does not.

In addition to McDougall Jones and Ash T, the play features actors from New York and Los Angeles, who have appeared on such Netflix, HBO and Hulu programs as “The Sounding,” in addition to appearing on Broadway and at Disneyland.

Aubrey Lace Taylor, a classically trained Shakespeare actor, plays Jory. Marvin Youssif, who has played in the TV miniseries “Pam & Tommy” among other productions, plays Abe. And Daniel A. Stevens plays Isaac.

Joe Lavigne who turned The Liberty Theatre stage into Grey Gardens, toad-land, shipwrecked islands and numerous other settings for Company of Fools, has created a New York apartment so beautiful audience members will want to move right in.

Even the actors from out of town are jazzed to be presenting the play at the 85-year-old Liberty Theater, said McDougall Jones, who has starred in such films as “Imagine I’m Beautiful” and “Bite Me.”

Isaac, an art seller played by Daniel A. Stevens, addresses Emily and Amir as his wife, played by Aubrey Lace Taylor, lingers in the background.

“It’s so exciting to be back. As a company we’ve never been on stage but, when I first came here as a writer-in-residence at the Hemingway House, I saw one of the last Company of Fools plays in the theater. And that made me think I could be here,” she added. “It’s such a beautiful theater and the set is incredibly beautiful. I think audiences will be excited to be back at the theater, as well.”

The play won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama before opening on Broadway in 2014. It also received a 2013 Obie Award for playwrighting and a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Play in 2015.

Akhtar, who was born in Staten Island and raised in Milwaukee, Wis., has appeared at the Sun Valley Writer’s Conference several times. He’s discussed his first novel “American Dervish,” a coming-of-age story about a Pakistani-American boy growing up in Milwaukee, for book lovers there. And he discussed his second novel “Homeland Elegies,” inspired by his life as a son of Muslim immigrants, in Ketchum’s Forest Service Park as part of the 2022 Sun Valley Writer’s Conference.

His latest play “Junk: The Golden Age of Debt,” was called “not only history but prophecy” by Bill Moyers, who likened it to a biblical-like account of who’s running America.

IF YOU GO

“Disgraced runs from Feb. 16-March 2 at The Liberty Theater at 110 N. Main St. in Hailey.

The show starts at 7 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Feb. 16-18, Thursday-Sunday, Feb. 22-25 and Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 28-March 2. There also will be a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Feb. 18 and Feb. 25.

Community Conversations exploring ideas raised by the play are open and free to “Disgraced” ticket holders from any date and will be held at 8:45 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, and at 3:45 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at The Liberty Theatre.

Tickets are $15 and $30, available at https://www.libertytheatrecompany.org/ticketing.