THROUGH THE ELEVATED LINE: A Mirror We Hold to Look at Ourselves

With just weeks away from the Cub’s World Series victory and the 2016 Election, an Iranian immigrant arrives at his sister’s apartment in Uptown, Chicago, after escaping imprisonment for being a gay man. But along with his luggage, Razi Gol brought his trauma.

Through the Elevated Line examines loss, trauma, and expectations of the future through an array of perfectly flawed characters. It is a drama rife with tension. It is the first-ever full-length professional production by the talented playwright Novid Parsi, who is also an established theatre critic and journalist. The downtown theatre company Silk Road Rising is producing the play at their intimate venue.

The story focuses on the interplay between three characters: the immigrant Razi, his Americanized sister, Soraya, and his sister’s husband, Chuck. Through their actions, words, and motivations, each raise the question of what it means to be "American" in different ways. The supporting characters contrast against them but also inform the immigrant and race narratives we tell ourselves — including the Asian-American Ben who references his family's hard work during an argument that an class-conscious and insecure Chuck started as he cited his working class roots.

Soraya, depicted by the stunning Catherine Dildilian, warmly embraces Razi after years of being separated but he notices that she has left her Farsi behind and switched from tea to coffee. The bold Joshua Volkers plays Chuck, loosely based on Stanley Kowalski, who is hot-headed, blustering, and flips homes for a living. The charming Salar Ardebili plays Razi, who is at once playful — reciting lines by 14th century poetry Hafez — and brash, as he steps on the toes of his brother-in-law while once making condescending remarks about his work.

The characters and the play reimagines the Tennessee Williams’ classic A Streetcar Named Desire without readapting it or relying on it as a crutch. In other words, Through the Elevated Line uses its familiarity to tell a new, updated story.

The play’s set is remarkable. The characters open a freezer for ice and the blue light radiates from its open door — it’s actually plugged in. The “L” train sends sparks, stops, then takes off again, by way of set designer Joe Schermoly and sound designer Jeffrey Levin cleverly recreating the train’s signature lights and sounds. Sitting in the 85-seat black box theatre, the set feels so real that it's like watching the drama unfold from the characters' living room.

Morality isn’t black or white, even though the characters’ judgments suggest otherwise. Through the Elevated Line asks questions without giving us easy answers: as director Carin Silkaitis noted, it is "the mirror we hold up" to give us a good look of the reflection.

If you want to be part of the conversation, the world premiere of Through the Elevated Line is running from March 7th to April 15th at Silk Road Rising's Downtown performance venue.

Where:

77 W Washington St

Pierce Hall

Chicago, IL 60602

Tickets are available at 312-857-1234 or www.silkroadrising.org/elevated-line