Ari’el Stachel stars in this new contemporary autobiographical one-man play about being an Arab Jew

Scheduled to run through December 6 at the Greenwich House Theater in the West Village, Other is a relatively new Off-Broadway play written by, and essentially about, Ari’el Stachel, the 34-year-old actor who won the 2018 Tony Award for his performance in The Band’s Visit.

In the show, Stachel explores the identity struggles he’s faced as an Arab Jew, born to an Ashkenazi American mother and a Yemenite Israeli father. According to The New York Times, Other recounts moments like his attempt to “pass as Black on the basketball court to fit in with middle school classmates, the distance he created from his dark-skinned, thick-bearded father amid post-9/11 anti-Arab sentiment, and his ongoing fight to land acting roles deeper than stereotypes like “Terrorist No. 2.”

Stachel, who also stars in the play, told Broadway.com that the inspiration for Other actually began the night he won the Tony in 2018.

“I’m getting accosted by well-wishers and I’m having trouble accepting that praise, feeling comfortable, feeling calm,” he recounted to the outlet. “It was an interesting entry point for the play: a juxtaposition between what the world might assume would be the greatest night of my life, and then what was actually happening for me inside.”

Given the heightened political climate in New York—amid a mayoral race that has made antisemitism and anti-Arab sentiment central points of contention between the two leading candidates, Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim who would become the city’s first-ever Muslim mayor if elected—Other feels more powerful than ever.

And with Election Day tomorrow, the play’s exploration of identity, belonging and perception might just hit differently depending on what New Yorkers decide at the polls.