Scandinavia House
Victor Borge Hall
58 Park avenue, NY, NY 10016
Translated from Swedish by:
Rachel Willson-Broyles
Directed by: Kwasi Osei
CAST
PJ Boudousque, Burke Adams*, Julia Kwamya, Ingrid Kullberg-Bendz*,
Arlene A. McGruder, Vanessa Johansson*, Andre Ozim* and Scott Callenberger
*Members of Actors' Equity Association
May 16th at 7pm
Q&A with Playwright
Jonas Hassen Khemiri
How much do you earn? Who do you serve? In Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s recent play ≈ [Almost Equal To] we encounter a number of people who are colliding with the system of economics that surrounds them.
Martina dreams about growing her way out of the contemporary economic system, Mani want to crush it. Andrei is looking for a job, Freja is seeking revenge. They all invest money in postage and pine nuts, fake bubbles and perfumes, strollers and utopias. Everyone seems consumed by numbers. How are we, our eyes, our words, and our bodies affected by the economic system that surrounds us?
≈ [Almost Equal To] is a funny and brutal play that tries (and fails?) to give the audience a maximized entertainment value for every dollar invested.
PRESENTED WITH SUPPORT FROM
JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI
Jonas Hassen Khemiri is the author of five novels and six plays. His first novel, Ett öga rött, received the Borås Tidning Award for Best Literary Debut Novel. Montecore won the prestigious P.O. Enquist Literary Prize and Swedish Radio’s Award for Best Novel. It was also nominated for the August Prize, Sweden’s highest literary honor, which Khemiri won in 2015 for Allt jag inte minns. His work has been translated into more than 25 languages, and his plays have been performed by over a hundred international theater companies worldwide.
He received the Obie Award for Invasion!, his first play. In 2019, a three-part adaptation of Allt jag inte minns aired on SVT. His latest novel, The Family Clause, won the 2021 Prix Médicis étranger and was a finalist for a National Book Award. He was a 2021-2022 Fellow at the Cullman Center in New York.