(bright upbeat music) - "A Distinct Society" is a new play that tells the story of five people from different countries and cultures, and it's having its world premiere at Pioneer Theatre Company.

The playwright, Kareem Fahmy, has more details about this production.

Hi, Kareem.

So nice to have you here.

- Thank you for having me.

- I already have my tickets, so I'm very excited for this.

- Awesome.

- So I want you to tell us first what inspired you to write this play.

- There's this amazing building.

It's a real place called the Haskell Free Library and Opera House, and it sits right over the border of the U.S. and Canada, right close to where I grew up, Southern Quebec, and the play is set in this library.

So half of the building is in one country, and half is in another, and a lot of exciting things happen there.

- Okay, and it's set during the ban on Muslims coming into the country?

- Correct.

- So that's what the families are, I'm assuming?

- Yeah, during the ban, because this building is in these both countries at the same time, people discovered that they could go there to meet their families.

So I read a story about this library, and I thought, "What an exciting setting for a play."

So it's about these events of 2017 when families were coming to this library.

- Oh, wow, and so who are the main characters?

- So it's five characters in the play.

There's the head librarian who's a French-Canadian woman named Manon.

There's a Customs and Border Protection officer from the U.S. named Bruce.

And then there's an Iranian family, a father and a daughter, who are using the library to have a get-together.

And then there's a a local teenager named Declan who carries an important part of the story as well.

- [Mary] All right, and this is your first play at Pioneer Theatre, a writer.

You've been there as a director.

- [Kareem] I have, yeah, yeah.

I was just there last season for a play called "Fireflies," and this is my first world premiere as a playwright at Pioneer.

- [Mary] Oh, is it your first play?

- It's actually my third play getting productions this season, but yeah, my first play in Pioneer, yeah.

- Oh, that's exciting, and we all get to see it.

And what a great topic, always timely.

So thank you so much for being here to share it, thanks.

- Thank you for having me.

- And if you would like to know more about that upcoming production at Pioneer Theatre, "A Distinct Society," it goes January 27th to February 11th, go to pioneertheatre.org, pioneertheatre.org.

Notice the R-E in "theatre."

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching "Contact."

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