Michael Shayan must be among the funniest advocates for Iran and the language of Farsi that nation ever produced. At least that’s the takeaway from “Avaaz,” this flamboyant performer’s joyful solo show in which his shimmering alter ego Roya (“the Persian mother you never had”) celebrates Nowruz, or Iranian New Year, and claims that the country of her birth invented “algebra, human rights, chess and religion,” even if the president believes that “gays don’t exist.”
Shayan grew up in the U.S. and he’s no fan of the current regime, focusing instead on that great and ancient nation’s illustrious past and future potential, if unleashed. Much of the material in “Avaaz,” which currently plays in the Upstairs Studio at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, has direction by the Broadway helmer Moritz von Stuelpnagel and a flashy set from the great Beowulf Boritt, would not be out of place at the Zanies comedy club and I mean that as a compliment: Shayan, who has worked comedically in several media from his Los Angeles base, gets off some very funny lines, many politically incorrect.
“When it comes to arranged marriages,” he jokes, “Indians play checkers and we play ‘The Price is Right.’”
He’s also a genial cultural host, leading the audience in Farsi lessons, sashaying his way through the audience for his crowd work and persuading people to dance in their seat. “Shoulder, shoulder, sexy shoulder, eyebrow, attitude” is how he begins his movement lesson in Iranian dance.
Clearly, Shayan (who also talks at length about being an “Iranian Jew”) is well aware he needs to do Iran 101, at least for some of the audiences, and clearly approaches that task with some relish, probing the differences between the country’s varied regions for an audience that (at least in part) clearly had viewed Tehran and the country itself as synonymous. Not true, he says, calling Tehran “the original 90210.” Albeit in exile.
A few Iranian emigrés clearly had found their way to the show at the Saturday night performance I attended, hopping and hollering and clearly having an I’ve-been-seen moment or three. But whatever their origins, most everyone I saw left laughing.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Avaaz” (3 stars)
When: Through Feb. 9
Where: Upstairs Studio at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Tickets: $52-$80 at 312-595-5600 and chicagoshakes.com
Sign up for the Theater Loop newsletter: Our weekly newsletter has the latest news and reviews from America’s hottest theater city. Theater critic Chris Jones will share a behind-the-curtain look at what you need to know.
Michael Shayan’s show, in which he plays his own mother as she celebrates the Iranian New Year, has much akin to stand-up comedy and I mean that as a compliment.
Michael Shayan must be among the funniest advocates for Iran and the language of Farsi that nation ever produced. At least that’s the takeaway from “Avaaz,” this flamboyant performer’s joyful solo show in which his shimmering alter ego Roya (“the Persian mother you never had”) celebrates Nowruz, or Iranian New Year, and claims that the country of her birth invented “algebra, human rights, chess and religion,” even if the president believes that “gays don’t exist.”
Shayan grew up in the U.S. and he’s no fan of the current regime, focusing instead on that great and ancient nation’s illustrious past and future potential, if unleashed. Much of the material in “Avaaz,” which currently plays in the Upstairs Studio at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier, has direction by the Broadway helmer Moritz von Stuelpnagel and a flashy set from the great Beowulf Boritt, would not be out of place at the Zanies comedy club and I mean that as a compliment: Shayan, who has worked comedically in several media from his Los Angeles base, gets off some very funny lines, many politically incorrect.
“When it comes to arranged marriages,” he jokes, “Indians play checkers and we play ‘The Price is Right.’”
He’s also a genial cultural host, leading the audience in Farsi lessons, sashaying his way through the audience for his crowd work and persuading people to dance in their seat. “Shoulder, shoulder, sexy shoulder, eyebrow, attitude” is how he begins his movement lesson in Iranian dance.
Clearly, Shayan (who also talks at length about being an “Iranian Jew”) is well aware he needs to do Iran 101, at least for some of the audiences, and clearly approaches that task with some relish, probing the differences between the country’s varied regions for an audience that (at least in part) clearly had viewed Tehran and the country itself as synonymous. Not true, he says, calling Tehran “the original 90210.” Albeit in exile.
A few Iranian emigrés clearly had found their way to the show at the Saturday night performance I attended, hopping and hollering and clearly having an I’ve-been-seen moment or three. But whatever their origins, most everyone I saw left laughing.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Avaaz” (3 stars)
When: Through Feb. 9
Where: Upstairs Studio at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Tickets: $52-$80 at 312-595-5600 and chicagoshakes.com
Sign up for the Theater Loop newsletter: Our weekly newsletter has the latest news and reviews from America’s hottest theater city. Theater critic Chris Jones will share a behind-the-curtain look at what you need to know.
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