Guards at the Taj
by Rajiv Joseph
directed by Amy Morton
starring Omar Metwally and Arian Moayed
Atlantic Theatre Company
June 16, 2015

Production website     💉💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

The Taj Mahal is a truly beautiful wonder of the world – – but you will NEVER be able to look at that serene building the same! Based on a popular myth regarding the Taj, director Amy Morton tells the story of the ugly cruelty that is behind so many of the beautiful things that man is able to create.

Two low level guards are set to protect the construction of the Taj Mahal. They are to insure that no one, including themselves, are able to view the Taj before it is fully complete and ready for viewing. So they stand, and they stand. Slowly we explore the Godot-like relationship of the two men: one strictly following the rules without question, the other, a bit of a radical open to questioning authority! What fun to watch this couple banter away and debate the obvious impossibility of preventing passerby from viewing the enormous Taj.  How crazy is this job?  But to what extent must authority be obeyed?  What would be so wrong to take just the slightest of peeks to see what in the world they have been guarding for sometime.

The Taj is finally completed and the men are left with one last order – – severe the hands off of all the artists that created the Taj. The only way to insure that no structure will ever match the beauty of the Taj is to cripple all the artists who made the Taj.  This ensures that the Taj will be the last piece of art that they will ever be able to create.

For this horror the setting moves to a small shower like room covered in blood – – with blood so deep that the drains are plugged and the actors and trudging through a few inches of stage blood. The nightmare is done. The hands are severed. Now, if possible, sense and responsibility for this must be found.

Imagine one day at work – being given the charge of killing beauty. . . But they told you to do it!