Theatre Mania
August 16, 2013
"Playfulness and seriousness intermingle to disturbing - and awfully satisfying - effect."
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Invasion! /
CurtainUp
August 12, 2013
“One of the best social commentaries in dramatic form of the past few years."
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The New York Times
August 15, 2013
"A slyly entertaining comedy with a sharp political edge...expresses confusion with remarkable clarity."
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The Village Voice
August 6, 2013
"If you’ve ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East―somebody has."
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Newcity Stage Chicago
By Zach Freeman
August 9, 2013
An ever-shifting piece of all-engaging theater, [Invasion!] asks its audience to stay on their toes and take nothing for granted [...] Invasion! can be uniquely understood by each audience member based on their own experiences.
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Theatre World Internet Magazine
By Ruth Smerling
August 5, 2013
Jonas Hassen Khemini’s Invasion! is a humorous but brutally in-your-face candid discourse on Arab identity in the world. Invasion! raucously cushions it’s slings and arrows spoofing American TV, borrowing format and content from shows like Friends and Saturday Night Live. The four person ensemble of Kamal Hans, Amira Sabbagh, Glenn Stanton and Omer Abbas Salem are merciless as they poke fun at the images of typical Arabs in America by sharing the concept of Abulkasem, the icon of bad behavior, a terrorist who put fear in the hearts of everyone around him. For everyone who has a hard time communicating, a fear of foreigners, or just needs a good laugh, Invasion! delivers from a depth of perspective rarely explored in the United States. Invasion!, with its stunning cast of original artists, is a must see.
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Fresh Roasted Films
By Matt Miles
August 10, 2013
Silk Road Rising’s production of Invasion! is a luridly poignant piece that is not only alarming and grappling, but the talent behind the work (both on stage and off) is engaging and deserves an audience.
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From the Ledge
By Francis Sadac
August 10, 2013
[Invasion!] is a provocative play that will make some people squirm in their seats, as they should!, but it is essential viewing.
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Chicago Theater Beat
By Catey Sulivan
August 5, 2013
A blistering commentary on the dangerous power of stereotypes. Jonas Hussan Khemiri‘s Invasion! is a challenging kaleidoscope of a play, a whirling, non-linear mash-up of chameleonic characters, charged situations and provocative ideas.
Read MoreInvasion (Silk Road Rising): Abulkasem /
The Fourth Walsh
By Katy Walsh
August 5, 2013
Within the first ten minutes, this show establishes itself as unconventional… startlingly so.
Read MoreIntense excessive in the semantics of racial profiling unfolds with zest /
Chicago Critic
By Tom Williams
August 4, 2013
[Ultimately] Invasion! delivers a theatrical treat. The piece proves to be provocative, daring and insightful. This show is worthy of an audience.
Read MoreProvocative Small Theater at its Best /
Splash Magazines
By Amy Munice
August 10, 2013
Obie-award winning “Invasion!” is a powerful and timely exposé of ethnic and racial profiling, and of that well-worn path of shortcuts in thinking that fall under the rubric of stereotype.
Read MoreAn Arab Zelig /
Stage and Cinema
By Lawrence Bommer
August 4, 2013
As malleable as the material, Anna Bahow’s subversive staging for Silk Road Rising keeps it surreal—and toxically familiar. The cast—Kamal Hans, Amira Sabbagh, Glenn Stanton, and Omer Abbas Salem—inhabit their careful caricatures with heart, charm and zest.
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TimeOut Chicago
By Kris Vire
August 10, 2013
The refractory Invasion! is a meditation on the powers of language and skin color...Khemiri also plays with the idea of an Arab-sounding name—Abulkasem—taking on a life of its own as it's transmuted from one speaker to another like a game of Telephone, eventually becoming the moniker of a terrorist who may or may not really exist.
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Windy City Times
By Scott C. Morgan
August 14, 2013
Silk Road Rising certainly deserves praise for tackling such a challenging work and performing it so well.
Read MoreEthnic assumptions get a workout at Silk Road /
Chicago Tribune
By Kerry Reid
August 9, 2013
[The play] blends the classic nesting-stories structure of "The Arabian Nights" with contemporary riffs on the psychic damages incurred through racial and ethnic profiling. The result [...] is a clever and sometimes-wrenching kaleidoscopic journey through the looking-glass of prejudice, fear and internalized self-loathing that ends with an indelible and horrifying erasure of identity.
Read MoreInvasion! arrives at world’s divisive time /
Chicago Sun-Times
By Hedy Weiss
August 6, 2013
[To] be sure, [playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's] talent (verbal pyrotechnics, deftly delineated characters, sly humor) is palpable in this Chicago production that features sharply etched direction by Anna Bahow, and a bristling good cast of four capable of morphing on a dime.
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