Pray to Ball

Reviewed by Lovell Estell III

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Basketball, race and culture have been the topics du jour of late, thanks to L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling, and our culture’s capacity to turn ugly private remarks into a public circus of bigotry and its discontents.

The same disputable subjects are the dramatic marrow of this debut outing from playwright Amir Abdullah. B-ball stars Hakeem (Y’lan Noel) and Lou (Abdullah) pair up at Miami Florida University with their eyes on big money and NBA draft day. It isn’t long before they hit the good-times circuit and “hook up” with Nika (Lindsey Beeman) and Tamana (Ulka Simone Mohanty) during a wild night of partying. But the initial giddiness about an enviable life in a beach city, campus stardom, and legions of adoring females ends when Hakeem’s ailing mother suddenly dies. The incident compels him to examine his life and seek a satisfying, deeper meaning in his life.

Hakeem’s path places him in the school’s Muslim Student Center, where he meets and befriends Bilal (Rickie Peete), and is stunned to find a radically different Tamana from the one he met earlier. Under her patient tutelage, Hakeem’s slow but steady commitment to Islam runs head on into Lou’s ambitions and nasty hard-bitten cynicism, imperiling both men’s expectations for the future.

Abdullah hasn’t penned a polished play. The mercifully short appearance of a faux comical dreadlocked character named Leafy Green (Peete) is an outlandish, unnecessary distraction; and the long -winded script needs more heft — given the subject matter — not to be confused with verbiage. Act 2 particularly would benefit from some judicious editing. Yet the topical story works well in tandem with Abdullah’s ear for witty, revealing dialogue, and his sense of humor is undeniable. Performances are sharp and convincing under Bill Mendieta’s direction (Noel is especially engaging), complemented by set designer Jeff McLaughlin’s B-ball court mock-up.

Skylight Theatre Complex, 1816 ½ North Vermont Ave., Los Feliz: Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; though June 8.  (213) 761-7061, www.skylighttix.com Also, see our theater feature