Crossing Forbidden Boundaries

The difference is that Arthur Miller invited us to question our own internal tyrannies by setting the play in New England, and equating 17th-century witch hunts with those of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. Deratany, however, sets his brutal drama in a foreign land, which invites us to do little but quake in horror over the atrocities of the "other," and feel smug self-satisfaction with our comparative liberties at home.

It might have been more interesting had the boys actually had sex — then we'd be looking at an issue beyond a transparent miscarriage of justice, which is really what this play is about. That, and how Iranian homophobia comes intertwined with religious zealotry. Perhaps the idea is to show just that, on the home front, but I couldn't find this play's emotional histrionics aiming to say much of anything about homophobia on our own soil.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAMONT

Sexual politics, Middle-Eastern style: Salam Shalom

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More About

• Avner Garbi Nabeel
• Jay Paul Deratany
• Korken Alexander
• University of California-Los Angeles
• Tel Aviv

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This is a very adept and compelling production, with marvelous performances. (Anoush Ne Vart, playing one of the boys' educated mothers, is also fine.) It's directed by Michael Matthews on Kurt Boetcher's set of rolling chain-link panels with a kind of CSI sleekness. That may have been due to Cricket S. Myers' sound design of percussive ejaculations that amp up the melodrama.

SALAM SHALOM | By SALEEM | Presented by GREENWAY COURT THEATER, 544 N. Fairfax Ave., L.A. | Through April 16, SalamShalomThePlay.com. (323) 655-7679.

HARAM IRAN | By JAY PAUL DERATANY | Presented by CELEBRATION THEATRE, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., W. Hlywd. | Through April 4. (323) 957-1884.