PC Peddlers

Following up from the post below on Oklahoma!, here's an interview with Michael Matus who plays the Persian peddler, Ali Hakim, in the Chichester production. Rather than playing the character as an actual Persian, Michael Matus plays him as a conman with a phoney accent and a painted moustache (at one point this is made clear when he briefly drops the accent and wipes off the 'tash). The Chichester Observer article explains:

As for Oklahoma!, Michael is playing a part described as a Persian peddler, a part he admits may well have raised a laugh in its day but could potentially come across as very un-PC today.

"Now it could just appear tasteless."

And so the current company have a different take on the role. Ali Hakim, they have decided, is probably from Chicago, quite a sinister character, a conman, not from Persia at all.

"I wouldn't want to end up with a fatwa on my head!"

I'd disagree with the "tasteless" accusation. It certainly didn't seem to harm the National Theatre's 1998 production. I suspect that the over-sensitivity was more to do with a white-skinned actor having to "brown up" in order to play a Persian. As such the decision is more understandable and, despite being a significant character change, actually makes surprisingly little difference to the storytelling. The most important thing about Ali Hakim is that he is a comically dodgy salesman of comically dubious wares; his ethnic origin is really by the by.

In related news Stage Right comments on another instance of change in the name of PC. In this case it's the original Shriner scene from Bye Bye Birdie which, according to the actress scheduled to play Rose in the forthcoming Broadway revival, is a bit too "gang-rape-y". Whoever knew?

Watch the clip and make up your own mind.