Photo Credit: Michael Brosilow
Director Brent Hazelton’s production of American playwright Rajiv Joseph’s Guards at the Taj at the Milwaukee Rep’s Stiemke Studio is beautifully crafted and extremely moving. The play opens just before dawn rises for the very first time on the just-completed Taj Mahal in Agra, India in 1648. Two of the lowliest royal guards, Humayun and Babur, have orders to stand silent, swords in hand, their backs to the wall that surrounds this newborn wonder of the world. They’re forbidden to look when first light strikes. For imaginative Babur, that’s impossible. Not even his soul brother Huma, concerned with orders and consequences, can restrain his friend. Nor, when the moment arrives, can he harness his own need to see such beauty. What follows is monstrous for both men.
The shocks the play delivers in its uninterrupted 85 minutes are profound and ultimately heartbreaking. It would be wrong to spoil them. “I killed beauty,” Babur will cry in extreme spiritual anguish when what’s he done is follow orders in hopes of advancement or at least survival in his crummy job. The play makes real the cost of complicity in power’s crimes.
It’s also a love story. The 44-year-old American playwright drew national attention with his earlier two-hander, Gruesome Playground Injuries, another highly original love story between friends inclined to hurt themselves. As you might imagine, there’s plenty of black humor in Joseph’s work, so dark and so true is the subject matter.
Though set in the 17th century, nothing feels at a remove. Joseph notes in his script that the actors shouldn’t use dialects. It’s a contemporary fantasy for adults and it’s no mean feat to stage. Costumes, lighting and sound demands offer major opportunities for artistry, beautifully met by Alison Siple, Noele Stollmack and Barry G. Funderburg, respectively. The setting and props pose unusual challenges. Cheers to designer Scott Davis and the stage crew, and to director Hazelton for perfectly orchestrating the many effects.
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But if for nothing else, you’ll want to see Guards at the Taj for the actors. It’s been a while since I have fallen so in love with two performers. The characters are in extremely vulnerable predicaments and the actors tasks are demanding, even frightening. Yousof Sultani (Humayn) and Owa’Ais Azeem (Babur) perform with complete transparency and impeccable timing. Their speech has music. Their silence has meaning. They make you care.
Through Nov. 4 at the Milwaukee Repertory Theatre’s Stiemke Studio, 108 E. Wells St. For tickets call 414-224-9490 or visit milwaukeerep.com.
