THE HOOVES BELONGED TO THE DEER – REVIEW OF TARRAGON THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Hooves Belonged to the Deer is a new play by Makram Ayache that is now playing at the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.  Ayache is a queer Arab who has a fertile imagination and considerable dramatic skills that are displayed in his play. Its complex plot deals with a gay Muslim  teenager in western Canada that meets a fundamentalist pastor who tries to covert him to the Christian faith and its strict tenets.

The play begins with the opening words of Genesis altered to read “in the beginning man created God” and then created the fundamentals of Christianity including original sin, the belief that Christ can save us and the conviction that homosexuality is a sin akin to pedophilia.

That tells you very little about the play and I need to expand. The contact between the young Arab boy Izzy, short for Ishmael, (Makram Ayache) and Pastor Isaac (Ryan Hollyman) is central to the story as the Christian befriends the youth and convinces him to adopt Christian values.

(L-R) Ryan Hollyman,, Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski, Bahareh Yaraghi,
Makram Ayache, Eric Wigston, and Noor Hamdi in The Hooves Belonged to the Deer
Tarragon Theatre 2023 – Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

The play then takes us back to the Biblical creation in the Garden of Eden where we meet Aadam (Noor Hamdi) and Hawa aka Eve (Bahareh Yaraghi). The opening scene of the play is titled Creation and is followed by Exodus and Revelation. The play moves from the Garden of Eden to the present with a scene of Izzy falling in love and having simulated sex with Will (Eric Wigston) to scenes in the life of  Pastor Isaac and his converted Muslim wife Rebecca (Bahareh Yaraghi) and the Pastor’s illegitimate son Jake (Adrian Shepherd- Gawinski). Noor Hamdi appears as Aadam and as Izzy’s father Reza and a nameless character involved in simulated a homosexual encounter with Will.

Ayache wants us to see conversations and fear taking place at the same time in the Garden of Eden of yore and in the present. Shepherd-Gawinski appears as Steve, an athletic youth who described himself as a knight and as perhaps the snake in the Garden of Eden and as the Pastor’s son Jake.

The whole thing becomes complicated and at times even confusing. Ayache tries to cover a lot of ground and a very effective play could be dramaturged into less acreage with the same powerful commentary on Christian and Muslim values and more importantly on human relationships across religious, cultural and sexual principles.

Ayache, in addition to writing the play, takes on the main role of Izzy with superb results. We see a teenager in a small town coming to terms with his sexuality and facing the cultural differences in his world. He faces the powerful influence of Pastor Isaac who comes across as a friend, an opening into the other world of Izzy’s parents. Ryan Hollyman as the Pastor is a powerful and persuasive influence, able to convince Izzy of his friendly intentions and offers of a refuge. We see the Pastor’s other side, his hypocrisy and his fundamentalist evil slowly. Hollyman’s performance is second to none. The rest of the cast, Noor Hamdi, Eric Wigston and Bahareh Yaraghi, deserve unstinting kudos for their acting. 

Director Peter Hinton-Davis with Set and Costume Designer Anahita Dehbonehie do excellent work trying to move the play across its different worlds and keep us in line but I have a feeling they were not entirely successful.

Makram Ayache is a relatively new man on the block and he makes a great impression. We wait for his next play.

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The Hooves Belonged To The Deer by Makram Ayache in a production by Tarragon Theatre in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, continues until April 26, 2023 at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review was published in the newspaper