Sons Of The Prophet (a Play)

By (author) Karam Stephen
Short description/annotation
A deeply humorous, unflinching portrait of grief and loss, Sons of the Prophet depicts a Lebanese-American family in rural Pennsylvania beset by an absurd string of tragedies. At the play’s centre is Joseph Douaihy, a once-promising world-class runner now sidelined by injury.
Description
A deeply humorous, unflinching portrait of grief and loss, Sons of the Prophet depicts a Lebanese-American family in rural Pennsylvania beset by an absurd string of tragedies. At the play’s centre is Joseph Douaihy, a once-promising world-class runner now sidelined by injury. As Joseph confronts his deteriorating health, he is also forced to face the death of his father, an ailing Uncle, and a desperate boss beset by her own tragedies. Deftly keeping its various storylines in careful balance, Karam’s play confronts, with abundant intelligence and great sympathy for human frailty, the inevitability of loss and the equally inevitable comedy resulting from our attempts to cope with is consequences.
Review quote
To observe that a play about extreme suffering is also explosively funny might seem absurd. But one of the many soul-piercing truths in Sons of the Prophet, the absolutely wonderful new comedy-drama by Stephen Karam, is that life rarely obeys the rules of dramatic consistency, or, for that matter fair play...And with unerring sensitivity he finds the sweet spot at which laughing at the horrors of life and feeling compassion for those who must endure them intersect." —Charles Isherwood, The New York Times 

"''Ravising'' is the best word for Stephen Karam''s new comedy. At once deep, deft, and beautifully made, Sons of the Prophet stares unflinchingly at the Gorgon''s head of grief—the kind of grief on which words have no purchase, the indigestible pain that never really goes away...Some things are lost; some are found; some are gone forever. Sons of the Prophet ponders this hard truth; it makes us consider the unacceptable.” —John Lahr, New Yorker

"Devastating and thrilling...by turns grave, poetic, wrenching, wry, and madcap, Sons of the Prophet...defies easy categorization. And it confirms [Karam]...as a major voice in American theater." —Adam Green, Vogue
Biographical note
Stephen Karam is the author of Speech & Debate, produced off-Broadway in 2007 by Roundabout Theatre Company as the inaugural production for Roundabout Underground, and the librettist for Dark Sisters, an original chamber opera.