“Closely Related Keys” Timely But Unconvincing

For all the bad that’s come from COVID-19, there’s a sliver of a silver lining for International City Theatre. Originally slated for 2020 but pandemically postponed until now, Wendy Graf’s Closely Related Keys, whose plot involves the plight of an imperiled Iraqi translator hoping against hope that the Americans he assisted in the wake of 9/11 will not forever leave him twisting in the wind, gets an extra dose of timeliness from today’s U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. Will we keep our promises, or are the friends we left behind on their own?

Unfortunately, timeliness is the best thing going for Closely Related Keys, with sloppy writing that groans under the weight of its own sententiousness and ill-considered staging.

It’s 2010, and Julia (Sydney A. Mason), a young NYC corporate lawyer, is really starting to hit her groove. She’s second-chairing her biggest case ever, and she’s got great chemistry — legally and sexually — with the first chair, Ron (Nick Molari). But then her pops (Oscar Best) drops a bombshell: Neyla (Mehrnaz Mohammadi), the half-Iraqi half-sister Julia never knew she had, is coming to America in three weeks. Oh, and did I mention Julia’s mom was killed at the World Trade Center on 9/11?

Yes, I know Iraq(is) had nothing to do with 9/11. But maybe Julia doesn’t. Or maybe it’s the hijab. Or maybe she thinks all Arabs are thick as thieves. Whatever the case, she’s got a problem with her seemingly permanent houseguest. (We’re told Neyla will go to a hotel after the first night, but she never leaves and the hotel is never again mentioned.)

But is there something to Julia’s misgivings? Graf does her damnedest to make us wonder by introducing Tariq (Adrian Mohamad Tafesh), who, in a series of shadowy phone conversations, sternly exhorts Neyla to some unnamed imperative she pledges to perform: “Believe me, Tariq, this will be done.” (Cue suspenseful minor chords.)

The mystery surrounding this plot point is as inorganic as the dialog with which Graf tries to drive home her admittedly important themes (obligation, otherness, reconciliation). “Maybe [we’re] a funny kind of family,” Dad tells Julia at play’s end. “She wears head scarfs, you defend big corporations, and me, I’m somewhere in between.” Wha? Then there’s the vague lawyer talk that makes L.A. Law seem like cinema verité. “I want to take another look at [the case material],” Julia tells Ron after a successful deposition. “I’m thinking it all comes down to dates. Looks like a long weekend for us.”

Graf’s shortcomings are equaled by director Saundra McClain’s, who just doesn’t seem interested in believability. Couples who finish loud intercourse should not emerge clothed from between the sheets without taking a second to pull up their drawers. Violinists should move their fingers on the fingerboard while playing. Visitors who call from the sidewalk intercom asking to come up to a second-floor apartment should not immediately walk into the room — and if staying, should take off their overcoats and scarves.

More importantly, with rare exceptions the cast simply recite their lines at each other, with no apparent listening/hearing involved. It’s impossible to say for sure whether the casting is bad, because McClain should never have allowed them to go through rehearsals like this.

There’s no denying that Closely Related Keys, with its mediation on America’s post-9/11 involvement with the Middle East, is perhaps even more relevant today than when it debuted seven years ago — and is likely to remain so for a long time to come. But relevance does not good art make.

Closely Related Keys at International City Theatre
Times: Thurs-Sat 8:00 p.m. and Sun 2:00 p.m.
The show runs through September 12
Cost: $49-$52
Details: (562) 436-4610, ICTLongBeach.org
Venue: Beverly O’Neill Theatre, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach