PHOTOS: Brooke Burton Photography
AJAX
by Habib Yazdi
Directed by Kareem Fahmy
April 22-May 9, 2026
World Premiere
~95 mins, Comedy
A play about the 1953 American coup in Iran. A comedy. Until it isn’t.
It’s a hot summer in August 1953, when a clean-cut American arrives at a peaceful villa in North Tehran. Kambiz, the villa’s gardener and pool boy, wonders if the new guest may be his ticket to a better life. As their friendship deepens, Kambiz finds himself entangled in strange affairs involving the Shah of Iran and the country’s elected prime minister. How will it end? Only the pool knows…
“This is the story of friendship. Of how I got a new job. A story of love and balance and time. And the smallest of chances.”
-Kenneth in Primary Trust
Cast:
Amin El Gamal (Shah)
Ben Farha (Pool)
Shayan Hooshmand (Kambiz)
Andy Ingalls (Kermit)
Gordon Reinhart (Loy)
Production and Design Team:
Kareem Fahmy (Director)
Hayden Pedersen (Assistant Director)
Elena Maddy (Stage Manager)
Tris Berg (Assistant Stage Manager)
Nicholas Jules Hewitt (Technical Director)
Alexander Woodward (Scenic Designer)
Chanté Thornton Hamann (Costume Designer)
Omar Madkour (Lighting Designer)
Caroline Eng (Sound Designer)
Lily Kennedy (Props Artisan)
Chris Pedersen (Master Carpenter)
Brayden Buckley (Sound Engineer/Sound Board Operator)
*Member of Actor’s Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
Did you catch Novid Parsi and Pantea Ommi on Idaho Today? Watch Mellisa Paul interview them on KTVB:
Reviews:
“I was left wondering, strangely for a critic: If everyone’s point of view is valid, is anyone’s?” -Jesse Green, The New York Times
“Reaches a peak of hilarity that would make Oscar Wilde envious. It’s that good. There wasn’t a soul in the theatre not convulsed with laughter… it is a shockingly beautiful piece of writing.” Lloyd Evans, The Spectator
“Never has a work so successfully integrated the effect of social media, in real time, on our un-virtual lives, as Jonathan Spector’s play.” – SF Weekly
“Talented playwright Jonathan Spector has achieved the almost impossible. He’s created an exceptional play that is laugh-out-loud funny, yet with an intelligent and introspective perspective… inventive, humorous and heartbreaking.” – Berkeleyside
“This is the play that would have kept us sane during lockdown” Clive Davis, The Times of London (****)
“Brilliantly funny and cleverly thought-provoking” Marianka Swain, London Theater (****)
About the Playwright
Habib Yazdi is an Iranian-American playwright and filmmaker whose work blends comedy with history and cultural memory. He produced and directed the PBS series United States of Comedy and is a recipient of South Coast Repertory’s Elizabeth George Commission. AJAX, his play about the 1953 American coup in Iran, was developed at The New Group and Bay Street Theater and will premiere at Boise Contemporary Theater in spring 2026, followed by a production at Amphibian Stage. He is a current member of The Writers’ Room at Geffen Playhouse.
Habib’s films have screened internationally at festivals including St. Louis, Brisbane, Brooklyn, Vail, and Pan African, and institutions such as the Barbican Centre, the de Young Museum, and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Habib earned his M.F.A. from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he received the Oliver Stone Screenwriting Award and the Goldberg Play Prize. He is an alum of Sundance and ISF’s Building Bridges Fellowship, as well as the Warner Bros. Discovery Access Directors Program, Mentorship Matters Writing Lab, New York Stage and Film Workshop, and Gotham Week.
Play Sponsor
Forge Signworks
Media Sponsor
KTVB
Access Partner
First Interstate Bank
Special Performance Dates
Preview Nights:
Pay What You Want Nights:
First Thursday Happy Hour:
Opening Night & After Party:
Educators’ Night:
Post-Show Convos:
Brunch for BCT:
Closing Night:
Feb. 4, 5, and 6, 2026
Wednesday, Feb. 4 & 18, 2026
5:30-6:30 pm, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026
Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. Read more about Dinner at The Avery.
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026
Stay to talk with the actors & designers after the Saturday, Feb. 14 matinee & the Friday, Feb. 20 show!
Noon, Saturday, Feb. 21. Pre-Fixe Brunch at Avery Bar + Brasserie. Read more here.
Feb. 21, 2026
Show Times
ALL EVENING PERFORMANCES NOW START AT 7:00 PM
Wed, Thur, Fri, & Sat – 7:00 pm
Saturday Matinee – 2:00 pm
Content and Stage Effects Advisory
BCT does not proactively offer advisories about subject matter, as sensitivities vary from person to person.
If you have any questions about content, age-appropriateness or stage effects (such as strobe lights or theatrical fog) that might have a bearing on patron comfort, please contact the box office at 208.331.9224 or boxoffice@bctheater.org.
