While this powerful little musical was meant to be seen after 9/11, the theme is still particularly relevant today. While most of us are sympathetic to the Afghan refugees who were evacuated from their homes after having helped U.S. soldiers in our longest war, the question of where they should be resettled has raised the NIMBY (not in my backyard) response around our country.
So how should mild-mannered Walter (David Hyde Pierce) react when he finds two young Arabic squatters have taken over the small apartment he keeps for his trips in from his Connecticut home? Tarek (Ahmad Maksoud) from Syria, and Zainab (Alysha Deslorieous) from Senegal, are young, attractive, and obviously in love. Walter is so lonely; his wife is dead, and his occupation no longer interests him. He runs out, finds the couple, and invites them to stay with him.
Tarek teaches him to play the drums, and recapture the beat of his life. He's happy again for the first time in a long time. But when Tarek is incarcerated as an undocumented illegal, the joy is halted. Hope returns briefly when Tarek's beautiful mother, Mouna (Jacqueline Antaramian) comes to be with her son. But the lawyer Walter has hired cannot keep Tarek from being deported, and Mouna leaves to be with him. Walter is once again left alone, but in his heart, he can still feel the beat of the drums.
