Stephen Karam’s contemporary family comedy receives a tender studio theater production this month as Windfall Theatre opens Sons of the Prophet. Mohammad N. ElBsat renders a very endearingly exhausted portrayal of Joseph Douaihy, a man who had injury-complicated dreams of becoming an Olympic athlete. Though there is a solid center to the plot, Karam’s script follows the restlessness of Joseph’s life in a story that jumps around a bit. The relatively brief script covers family, work and love in a pleasant tangle.
Director Carol Zippel has done a solid job of pulling together the earthbound craziness of various disparate scenes in the life of Joseph. In addition to dealing with problems at work, the story has Joseph dealing with his elderly uncle (a charmingly oblivious Don Devona) and his brother (the wittily charismatic Kyle Conner). To complicate matters, Joseph is mourning over the loss of his father—an event of some public interest. The situation finds a reluctant Joseph finding a romantic connection with the devilishly sophisticated Joe Picchetti in the role of a rising, young TV journalist named Timothy.
ElBsat provides more than enough earnest emotional center to keep the story moving through strange transitions and unintentionally awkward moments. At times ElBsat and Picchetti deftly render the complexity of relations between Joseph and Timothy. Conner makes the strongest impression here, though. Playing the more outgoing of two gay brothers, he’s given lots of dramatic and comedic range to cover and does so remarkably well while managing to render interesting little personal flourishes that make for a fun performance.
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Through March 5 at Village Church Arts, 130 E. Juneau Ave. For tickets, call 414-332-3963 or visit windfalltheatre.com.
