"Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven"

June 26, 2019 — I haven't been able to decide whether I liked this play. It's low-key, except for a brief, violent outburst near the end. It had an intermission, but with a total time on-stage of barely more than 90 minutes, it didn't really need it. I'm also finding it difficult to review, but here goes:

On an unnamed island just off the U.S. mainland, unkempt, sloppily-dressed Thomas (Steven Michael Walters), an artist, has come down to the ferry dock, one of his favorite places to meditate. There he finds a woman (Aliah Whitmore) with a large travel case sitting alone at the end of a long bench. She's wearing a heavy winter coat and hijab, or headscarf, of the type Muslim women wear. He tries to start a conversation but she's unresponsive for several minutes, but Whitmore's silent acting is one of the highlights of the play. Her facial expressions say volumes.

She eventually warms up to Thomas' clumsy efforts to make conversation and we learn she's Iranian, a college student majoring in literature, and her brother threw her from the car after an argument and left her to make her own way back to the mainland. Thomas points out that she misread the ferry schedule and the next ferry isn't that evening but the next day. He invites her to walk to his mother's house a short distance away where she can spend the night. The door is always unlocked. She can sleep on the living room sofa. His mother won't mind.

Next morning, Mahida's on the sofa asleep, covered in blankets, headscarf off. Thomas' mother, Edna (Kathy Manfre), comes down the stairs and finds her, but doesn't seem particularly surprised. Mahida eventually awakens, conservative Edna grills her with a battery of prying questions about her nationality and her country's customs of which she has many misconceptions. When they hear Thomas begin to descend the stairs, Mahida urgently asks him to wait, finds her headscarf and dons it, carefully arranging the flowing fabric around her neck. It's interesting she can't be seen by a man with her head uncovered, although it has become obvious she's not strictly religious.

Finally, with Thomas and Mahida out for a walk, Mahida's menacing brother, Ramin (Adham Haddara) shows up at Edna's door, barges in without invitation, claims he's there to get his sister, gets some of the same line of questioning Edna used on Mahida, which he mostly ignores or scoffs at. It becomes obvious he's a much more devout Muslim than his sister. When Thomas and Mahida return, Ramin is there alone and Edna is nowhere to be seen. Ramin says she went shopping, which Thomas finds unbelievable. A violet scuffle breaks out between the two men, with Ramin easily overpowering Thomas.

The message I got from the play is that if we could accept, if not understand, our different cultures, beliefs and customs, secularism outweighs those things in our relations to one another. In the end, all except Radim, who storms out in a huff, understand this. Everyone survives their injuries, both physical and spiritual.

I never figured out the meaning of the title, "Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven" by Russell Davis. Presented at the Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the play was directed by Players artistic director Gus Kaikkonen. Charles Morgan designed the excellent multiple sets, and Bethany Mullins was responsible for costume design.

I guess I liked it. I was never bored at any time. Performances by the four actors were first-rate, as we've come to expect at the Players.