Delightful 'Afghani' needs more detail

Clocking in at just under an hour, Kawa Ada's one-man show, "The Canny Afghani," is a promising but underdeveloped work. It's not just the brevity of the play that limits its range, but also the way Ada only glancingly inhabits the rich characters he creates -- including (perhaps paradoxically) himself. What's being shown at the Boston Center for the Arts through this evening is essentially the executive summary of what could prove one day to be a compelling performance piece about culture and survival.

"The Canny Afghani" sketches out real-life events -- the play is mostly autobiographical -- that lead members of Ada's family to leave Afghanistan in 1979, travel to Pakistan and later to India, then ultimately settle in North America. These events range in size and reach, but not necessarily in their personal effect upon Ada. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan prompted one uprooting, while a too intimate exchange between a young Ada and his landlord's son prompted another.

Or so Ada suspects. His homosexuality is just one of the many topics introduced, but not aggressively explored. Ada tells the audience with great solemnity that he rarely visits his parents, but stops short of discussing why. The play is riddled with moments where Ada opts for a humorous, if tidy, vignette rather than a potentially riskier revelation. And the rather weak opening is a trying-too-hard springboard for a discussion about stereotypes.

At the same time, Ada is a magnetic performer, adept with detail and imagery, both in his writing and portrayals. "The Canny Afghani" features multiple characters, from his parents and siblings to the people he encountered as his family journeyed across the globe. Much of the action is told in flashback form, with Ada swiftly changing identities and dialects after delivering narrative bridges. His portrayal of his mother is particularly entertaining, but is skewed toward the silly -- even though she is a woman who sacrificed much to preserve her family, surviving bombings and poverty. Ada creates enjoyable characters, but somehow manages to shortchange his own maturation.

"The Canny Afghani" uses modest scenic elements, little more than a table and chairs. News clippings taped to panels at the back of the stage are somewhat deceptive, suggesting that the performance will be about current events when its family-based themes are more universal than that. Robyn Jones, who also directs the piece, provides delicate lighting for the action.

Essentially, the missed opportunities in Ada's show are the product of too many generalizations. Were Ada to choose to be as much of a character as a conduit for exposition, the journey within "The Canny Afghani" would be greatly enriched. As it is now, this project is merely en route.

The Canny Afghani
Play written and performed by Kawa Ada
Directed by Robyn Jones. Sets, Harrison Rabel. Lights, Jones.
At: Boston Center for the Arts through tonight, 617-426-2787.