In his program note, playwright Mayank Keshaviah boldly declares that Rangoon is his update of “Arthur Miller’s take on the American Dream.” But his dull, overlong world premiere is less Death of a Salesman and more
Ennui of a 7-Eleven Manager. The new play does share some basic commonalities with Salesman. Like Willy Loman, Dhiraj Patel (Faizul Khan) is an aging family man whose ideas of what his life was supposed to be don’t match up with the one he’s found himself living. An Indian immigrant in the U.S., Dhiraj works a thankless job at a Podunk convenience store, and his son (Adeel Ahmed) and daughter (Anita Sabherwal) are disappointments to their father no matter how hard they try.
That’s where comparisons to Miller’s masterpiece fall off. Dhiraj is too petulant and predictable to fill the shoes of a great tragic everyman; he has almost no arc as a character. There isn’t much of a plot to speak of, other than Dhiraj’s emotional journey from stubborn traditionalist who can’t appreciate what he has to…stubborn traditionalist who can’t appreciate what he has.
Raul Aranas’s production for Pan Asian Repertory Theatre doesn’t feel broken in yet, but it isn’t without merit: Ahmed and Sunita S. Mukhi both offer canny turns as Dhiraj’s long-suffering son and wife, respectively. Despite a handful of solid scenes and performances, Rangoon is agonizingly drawn out; Keshaviah could shave an hour off of his script without losing anything but deadweight. Attention need not be paid.—Jenna Scherer