Locally written ‘Third Country’ aims high but seldom scores

Theater review

“Third Country”

Grade: B-

Through Oct. 20. 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 3 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. $20-$30. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave. (in Little Five Points), Atlanta. 404-584-7450. www.horizontheatre.com.

Bottom line: Well-meaning but minor.

Her good intentions alone aren’t quite enough to sustain the show as a whole, but Atlanta playwright Suehyla El-Attar’s heart is clearly in the right place — which is to say firmly on her sleeve — in “Third Country,” her second work to be commissioned by Horizon Theatre. (She’s primarily known around town as an actress, recently on view in “Swell Party.”)

The first, “The Perfect Prayer,” premiered in 2006. It told a semi-autobiographical story about a young Muslim woman, the American-born daughter of Egyptian immigrants, questioning and rebelling against a virtual checklist of spiritual beliefs, cultural customs and familial obligations.

“Third Country” is similarly topical, and no more subtle or less obvious in the way it covers all its dramatic bases. Although the play is set in a fictional Georgia town called Sidington, it’s based on extensive research that El-Attar conducted among the growing refugee community in nearby Clarkston.

Co-artistic director Lisa Adler’s Horizon staging opens with a crackling sense of urgency that gradually dissipates as the story progresses. During a heated town meeting, the mayor and a representative from the local resettlement agency are fielding comments from concerned residents about the influx of immigrants to the area. By planting a few actors in the audience to engage in the debate, Adler gives the scene a definite you-are-there quality.

She also casts the show with uniformly competent actors. Not surprisingly, El-Attar’s most interesting characters are her two refugees. The splendid Cynthia D. Barker portrays Nura Hussein, a proverbial stranger-in-a-strange-land newly arrived from Somalia, and the ever-engaging Eric J. Little is Asad An-Naim, a Sudanese soccer fan (and hopeful U.S. citizen) who helps her acclimate.

Regrettably, in the grand scheme of “Third Country,” they aren’t merely outnumbered by American characters; their importance to the story is basically outweighed by them, too. The real protagonist of the piece is their idealistic caseworker, Sasha (a too-perky Marcie Millard). Other subplots involve her pragmatic boss (Tess Malis Kincaid), an open-minded businessman (William S. Murphey) and Sidington’s shortsighted mayor (Tom Thon).

With his affected Southern drawl, Thon is the closest thing there is to a legitimate antagonist. A lot of the dramatic conflict exists apart from the rest of the action, involving the unseen characters of a racist cop who’s harassing Asad or a conservative city councilman who’s pressuring the mayor. It feels like an emotional ploy when El-Attar suddenly brings up the tragic death of another refugee we’ve neither seen nor heard about anywhere else in the play.