DISCLAIMER
Written by Tara Ahmadinejad
Created by Piehole
Co-directed by Tara Ahmadinejad and Jeff Wood
Hosted by Tara Ahmadinejad with Hassan Nazari-Robati
January 7 - January 17, 2021
Presented by the The Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival
Created by Piehole
Co-directed by Tara Ahmadinejad and Jeff Wood
Hosted by Tara Ahmadinejad with Hassan Nazari-Robati
January 7 - January 17, 2021
Presented by the The Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival
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Disclaimer begins as Zoom cooking class hosted by Chef Nargis, who is teaching how to make the Persian dish sabzi polo. However, she quickly reveals her ulterior motive: preventing war with Iran through an interactive demonstration designed to engender empathy in an American audience. One by one, she spotlights randomly chosen audience-members from the Zoom room, casting them as her Iranian family and friends, assembled for an impossible, beautiful gathering. It's all going roughly as planned until, at the height of the festivities, someone dies. The static cooking demo suddenly mutates into a cinematic black-and-white Agatha Christie-esque murder mystery, with Nargis in the role of detective. The Iranian characters we’ve only just met are killed off, one by one, and as ridiculous plot lines spill out, and the bodies pile up, Nargis must reckon with what her experiment in empathy has wrought. Through Nargis' absurd and desperate quest for togetherness, Disclaimer examines identity, fear, and the stakes of cultural (mis)representation.
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"Unlike so much remote theater, 'Disclaimer' feels purpose-built for Zoom"
"A...considered study of the incomplete ways we understand what is foreign to us" - NY Times "Disclaimer not only feels like it was made for Zoom, it actually scratches the itch for live theatre. It is funny and it is relevant, but most of all it is visceral and immediate. For that alone it should be priority viewing." - The Reviews Hub "A shared communal experience that feels awfully close to the sensation of sitting in a theater with other people...Disclaimer makes Zoom feel more like a playground than a prison...the fresh, surprising ways that unsuspecting Zoomers become part of the storytelling are deliciously amplified" - Slant “Surprising and beautiful...a wacky, studied, ingenious dramatic hybrid...a lesson not in cooking but of love and diplomacy...How incredible, how magical this production is. I didn’t want to leave the other audience members (Chef Nargis’ family) Chef Nargis and amiable Sous Chef Hassan, all of whom created a community of family and warmth...Suffice to say Disclaimer is awesome." - Theater Pizzazz |
CREDITS
Hosted by Tara Ahmadinejad with Hassan Nazari-Robati Co-Directors Tara Ahmadinejad and Jeff Wood Lighting Design Reza Behjat Production Design Alexandra Panzer Sound Designer Ben Vigus Video Design Stefania Bulbarella Video Associate/Programmer Alessandra Cronin Video Editor Jeff Wood Line Producer Ryan Gedrich Dramaturg Heidi Davis Collaborating Artist Layla Khoshnoudi Production Stage Manager Eli Schleicher Production Manager Violet Asmara Tafari Marketing Liaison Bailey Williams
FEATURE IN AMERICAN THEATRE
American Theatre wrote about Disclaimer's history and impetus, as well as its unique process and challenges.
AUDIENCE ROLE
Each performance is as unique as the audience assembled. Below: one character's final moment, on four different nights.
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SKILL-SHARE PRESENTATION ON HOWLROUND
The Disclaimer creative team did a free technical skill-share with HowlRound.
SUPPORT
In addition to support from The Public, Disclaimer has received support from: The NYC Women’s Fund for Media, Music and Theatre by the City of New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment in association with The New York Foundation for the Arts. Disclaimer has also received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Art and the NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund and the Puffin Foundation. It has also received development space from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Theatre Workshop, and Clubbed Thumb. Disclaimer was workshopped at the inaugural Emruz Festival in Spring 2019.
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