THEATRE REVIEW

MARCH 2025 | Volume 249

 

Anosh Irani’s Behind the Moon tells a powerful story about three Indo-Canadian men. In a small storefront Toronto eatery, The Mughlai Moon, we meet the owner Qadir (Dhirendra), his employee Ayub (Praneet Akilla) and cab driver Jalal (Zahf Paroo). Their triangle reveals a range of attitudes and experiences regarding emigration and sheer humanity in a terrific production from Touchstone Theatre’s director, Lois Anderson.

Jalal is a somewhat mysterious visitor, coming in frequently and attempting to establish a friendship with intense, contained, unhappy Ayub, who resists him at every turn. Their conversations in the first act are deeply philosophical, but eventually we’ll learn about Jalal’s personal tragedy and Ayub’s severely straitened circumstance, which has much to do with his employment by jolly, smug, paternalistic Qadir.

I won’t give away any more of the play’s fascinating revelations except to say that Jalal helps to change the dynamic, Ayub decides whether he is a man or a rat, and Qadir gets some of what he deserves.

The acting in this production is stellar. Akilla and Paroo, especially, maintain an impressive naturalism, and their timing is impeccable. Jonathan Kim’s subtle lighting and Joelysa Pankanea’s sound quietly reinforce the powerful internal dramas.

Jalal has an amazing monologue towards the end, and the final scene is very satisfying, but there are a couple of false endings. Otherwise, this seems to me the strongest of Irani’s fine plays.

 

 

 

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