Opening Night of the World Premiere production of AJAX by Habib Yazdi, directed by Kareem Fahmy at BCT

Date and Time for this Past Event

• Saturday, Apr 25, 2026  7pm - 8:30pm

Location

visit website

Details

Based on true events: 1953. Tehran. Poolside. (A comedy).
AJAX
by Habib Yazdi
Directed by Kareem Fahmy
April 22-May 9, 2026
World Premiere

~95 mins, Dark Comedy

A political thriller about the 1953 CIA-backed coup that reshaped Iran. A comedy. Until it isn’t.

It’s a hot summer in August 1953, when a clean-cut American arrives at a peaceful villa in North Tehran. Kambiz, the villa’s gardener and pool boy, wonders if the new guest may be his ticket to a better life. As their friendship deepens, Kambiz finds himself entangled in strange affairs involving the Shah of Iran and the country’s elected prime minister. What happens next shaped the next seventy years of Middle Eastern politics. In this darkly comic spy thriller, a swimming pool becomes a nation, tennis becomes oil politics, and politeness becomes warfare. You’ve never seen American foreign policy look this seductive- or this damning.

How will it end? Only the pool knows…

Cast:
Amin El Gamal* (Shah)
Ben Farha (Pool)
Shayan Hooshmand (Kambiz)
Andy Ingalls* (Kermit)
Gordon Reinhart* (Loy)

Production and Design Team:
Kareem Fahmy (Director)
Hayden Pedersen (Assistant Director)
Elena Maddy (Stage Manager)
Sophie Ventresco (Assistant Stage Manager)
Alexander Woodward (Scenic Designer)
Lily Kennedy (Props Designer)
Chanté Thornton Hamann (Costume Designer)
Omar Madkour (Lighting Designer)
Caroline Eng (Sound Designer)
Steve Cuiffo (Magic Consultant)
Nicholas Jules Hewitt (Technical Director)
Amandalynn Lovewell (Scenic Charge)
Matthew Chilcoat (Main Electrician)
Brayden Buckley (Sound Engineer/Board Operator)
Chris Pedersen (Head Carpenter)
Dacia Murdoch (Light Board Operator)
Lex Gonzalez (Scenic Painter and Crew Hand)