Thursday, August 28, 2025
It’s not hard to guess which couple “Dodi & Diana” is named for: Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, both killed in a Paris car crash (as was driver Henri Paul) early on Sunday, Aug. 31, 1997.
As a title for Mosaic Theater Company’s season-opener, it’s catchier than “Jason & Samira.” Yet that marital bond — of a Canadian banker and an Egyptian American actor — is the focus of Kareem Fahmy’s play, described by Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas, who is directing, as “a gorgeous roller-coaster study of a marriage.”
The concept: Jason, played by Jake Loewenthal, and Samira, by Dina Soltan, are the astrological doubles of the ill-fated celebrity couple, according to Jason’s trusted star-charter. On the tragedy’s 25th anniversary, they are holed up in the Ritz Paris, where Dodi and Di had been staying, to await a life-changing convergence.
Douglas, a Georgetown University grad who held positions at Pittsburgh’s City Theatre and D.C.’s Studio Theatre, caught the play’s world premiere — directed by Colt Coeur Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt at Here Arts Center, in the west-of-SoHo Hudson Square neighborhood — in October of 2022, his first year at Mosaic. Over coffee the next day, the Canadian-born playwright remarked, according to Douglas: “You know, there’s things I’m still thinking about.”
Here’s what Douglas was thinking about: “In this new position, how can I and a company that values new work, and values artists at the center of our productions and our process, make a space for writers to have a second production where they can try it all again?”
Playwright Kareem Fahmy Zooms in for a meeting of the “Dodi & Diana” cast and crew led by Mosaic Theater Company Artistic Director Reginald L. Douglas. Courtesy Mosaic.
When the show opens on Sept. 4, audiences will see a play that is “wonderfully different and fresh and new,” Douglas told The Georgetowner. “So much so that we got new pages today” (the interview was two weeks ago).
“The approach is to really center the love story at the core,” he said, sharing a general principle: “We can think about the world we live in, and greater issues of racism or sexism or politics, but the personal has to come first.”
“The set is designed to be this gorgeous hotel room at the Hotel Ritz … and it unfolds before the audience like the best of the romance movies … in terms of style and structure: high in romance, gorgeous, lush images, big king-size bed. There’s a curtain that unveils the set before your eyes.” Summing up: “Their love, their lust and their light are wonderfully in tandem and very palpable from the beginning.”
Re “their lust,” he commented, “our resident intimacy director Sierra Young is working very hard.”
Also “working overtime”: dialogue coach Jen Rabbitt Ring. “Dina, who was raised in London, is playing an American actress born in Rhode Island, who also is playing a role in a TV show where she has to … put on a thick, stereotypical Arab American woman’s accent,” explained Douglas. Meanwhile, Jake, “raised in Connecticut, [is] learning a Canadian dialect and accent.” On top of all that (spoiler), “they’re also learning the specific accents of those two historic figures.”
Apart from the actors’ “instant chemistry,” Douglas noted what Loewenthal and Soltan bring to “the cat-and-mouse game” of the script. “One of the great gifts of Jake is he is a great musical theater actor, and so he’s so physical and he has such a great command of charm and emotional heights.” Describing Soltan as “wonderfully inquisitive and curious,” he said that “she brings such a smartness … and intelligence and precision to her take on Samira.”
How does “Dodi & Diana,” a romantic comedy with elements of magic realism, suit Mosaic, founded as a resident company at the Atlas Performing Arts Center by Ari Roth, creator of the Voices From a Changing Middle East Festival, following his controversial dismissal from Theater J in 2014 (Roth left Mosaic in 2020)?
“I think it continues in the tradition again of Mosaic telling stories that center Middle Eastern cultures and identities,” said Douglas, adding that he was “really thrilled and proud to have an Egyptian actress as our leading lady.” What’s more, “our playwright Kareem spoke … about how meaningful it is to have his work produced as an Arab playwright, which is less than 10 percent of the plays happening in America.”
Fahmy will appear at a talkback cosponsored by the Arab American Institute on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 7:30 p.m. Other “Dodi & Diana” events: a presentation by Young about staging intimacy on Sunday, Sept. 14, at 3 p.m.; intergenerational matinees with post-show conversations on Sept. 18 and 25, both Thursdays, at 11 a.m.; a tarot card reading at alcohol-free Binge Bar, 506 H St. NE, on Friday, Sept. 19, from 5 to 7 p.m.; and a meet-the-actors session on Sunday, Sept. 28, at 3 p.m.
“We proudly program activities in every ward of the city,” noted Douglas. “We really love being a citywide, D.C.-centered organization, and that shows up onstage and off, because this design team is also all local to the area.”
The overall theme of Mosaic’s Season 11, “Good Trouble,” was inspired by the third of four productions, opening in late March: the world-premiere musical “Young John Lewis,” with book and lyrics by playwright-in-residence Psalmayene 24 and music by Kokayi, directed by Douglas. The other two shows are Samuel D. Hunter’s “A Case for the Existence of God” in November, directed by Danilo Gambini, and the world premiere of Steph Del Rosso’s “Precarious” in June, directed by Jaki Bradley.
Despite serial challenges to D.C. arts presenters in recent years, Douglas’s attention to “audience-building” is paying off; last season, Mosaic recorded a “20 percent increase in our ticket sales and had our strongest fundraising year ever,” he said. “My optimism comes from my gratitude for the ticket-buyers and donors and board members who have stood with us.”
“Our mission is in our name … different cultures and communities and perspectives coming together … to keep celebrating what makes D.C. so special, no matter who’s in the administration,” Douglas said. “We are an international city and, for us, we’re an international company. And that’s another reason why ‘Dodi & Diana’ … is such a spot-on piece of programming for us.”
Dodi & Diana
Sept. 4 to Oct. 5
Mosaic Theater Company
Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE
mosaictheater.org