Review of a reading of Omeed’s Tapestries 11-22-2024 by Barry M. Putt, Jr, directed by Robert Liebowitz

Barry M. Putt, Jr.’s Omeed’s Tapestries reading on November 22 at Open Jar was a show that is actually ready for production.

The story dealing with brutal discrimination against LGBTQIA+ individuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran is an important one and needs to be told and Putt’s script is good enough to attract some audience. The use of English, Farsi and French in the production works seamlessly and shows intelligent courage on the part of the author. The use of American colloquialisms by the protagonists was a bit unbelievable/uncomfortable and perhaps should be changed. Borrowing ideas from the Salem Witch trials is a functional model that Putt’s employs.

The problem is that as currently written the show has a very limited audience. It will find an audience among the LGBTQIA+ community and among those politically committed to it. It would be successful at smaller off-off Broadway theaters (i.e. Theater for a New City, TANK, HERE) and would be very successful at many festivals around the world. If that is enough success, then it should not hesitate to go immediately to production.

The major problem is Omeed’s Tapestries does not pass what I call the “Shakespeare test”. If you have protagonists who have the means to alleviate a situation but fail to use it (LEAR, Romeo and Juliet, Titus, Macbeth, et al), you have written a comedy or, if you choose to do it as a drama, a show that has very limited appeal. The two protagonists here, Omeed and Afshar, are well educated and from middle to upper middle-class families they recognize the danger they are in but refuse to do anything about it. In fact, they embrace unnecessary risks and are shocked when it comes back on them. That is the basis of every American sitcom and Shakespearean classic. An intelligent audience will recognize the injustice they face but have little sympathy for them. If Putt’s wants a wide audience and a play with lasting impact, his protagonists should be individuals helpless in the face of religious and political intolerance. If his protagonists were a subsistence farmer and a farm worker who had little or no chance to leave Iran, his story would have a universal and long-lasting impact.