I am overwhelmed and Disgraced.

Sunday, we decided to stroll down to Times Square and check out the new Broadway shows.

I have an app that tells me what is on the boards each day, but we thought we would take a walk since we had only logged 11.5 miles the previous day.

The options were few as we had either seen the play or were not interested in the revivals. One offering that had just opened in previews caught our attention.

A window immediately opened up and we inquired about Disgraced. Balcony, full view seats were available for $28 each…at that price point, we had nothing to lose, but 80 minutes of our life.

We went for it and Disgraced was worth every penny and much more.

Ayad Akhtar’s blistering drama had a critically acclaimed run Off-Broadway in 2012 and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama the following year.

Disgraced is a timely, sociopolitical exploration of the fear of Islamophobia and the conflicts American Muslims experience when they face their true identity.

The cast features Amir (Hari Dhillon) who was born in Pakistan and raised Muslim, but has thoroughly left his origins behind. He does not mind people assuming he is Indian.

Emily (Gretchen Mol) has far more respect for Islam and employs imagery from Islamic art in her work. Jory (Karen Pittman), Amir’s African-American colleague who is also on the rise at his firm, and her boyfriend, Isaac (Josh Radnor), a Jewish art curator who is putting together a show that will be a good fit for Emily’s art, round out the diverse foursome.

The fifth role, of Amir’s nephew, Abe (born Hussein Malik) is played by Danny Ashoka whose powerful performance at the end of the play sends you away contemplating the extremists conversion.

The salad course during a dinner party in, Disgraced, turns into an organic argument about religion and race…indigestion for all four individuals follows.

Disgraced is like observing a hotly contested chess match. Two couples exchange observations about faith and politics in the modern world. Thinly veined prejudice and hatred surface. People are going down and some may never rebound.

The dinner party devolves and explodes as the conversation focuses in on religion and politics in post 9/11 America. Amir shatters the civility when he admits to feeling pride after 9/11.

The audience is made to sit up, engage and think about racial and ethnic prejudices that continue to pervail even in progressive and culturally enlightened societies.

This engrossing play surprises its audience as circumstances cause it to unexpectedly veer towards the complicated questions of identity and religion in the 21^st century and how radical Islam and fundamentalism and resulting terrorism find fertile ground among disaffected youth.

The explosive final scenes of the play will leave you in stunned silence and then lead to a flurry of stimulating conversation as you leave.

This is important theater that makes you think and confront issues to which there are no simple answers.