Duke & Roya – 17 June 2025

Duke & Roya is the rare play that captures a snapshot of a very serious geopolitical conflict yet manages to leave audiences with a genuine smile. Charles Randolph-Wright’s incredibly tight, crisp script, merged with Warren Adams’s brilliant directorial touch lets this unlikely love story soar in all of its beautiful, unexpected moments of true connection. The story follows Duke, an African American hip hop artist who performs a concert on a US military base in Afghanistan. He falls in love with his Afghan interpreter, Roya, who lives a complicated double life that is utterly unique for a woman in her country. His hunger for adventure and her bold desire to change the world lead them in and out of danger as they both struggle to understand what it means to truly live. In the end, the characters reunite after a lengthy separation, and return to the conversation that started their relationship as two very different people who have attained a measure of enlightenment and a reexamination of their fundamental principles.

Though all four actors—Jay Ellis (Duke), Stephanie Nur (Roya), Dariush Kashani (Sayeed), and Noma Dumezweni (Desiree)—do an exceptional job bringing these characters to life, I really think that the genius of this show is in the writing. Charles Randolph-Wright finds a way to reach almost every demographic—it’s not just a show that speaks to hip hop fans or geopolitical activists. It’s also a show with intrigue, love, action, pride, comedy, tragedy, and much more. It has moments that feel like a documentary, moments that are salacious and scandalous—and entirely unexpected at that–, moments that speak to the queer community regarding living a life in an opposite gender role by highlighting the difference between being a particular person and wanting to be a particular person, and moments that speak to the complexity of conflict in the Middle East while also being deeply humanizing. Duke & Roya is overflowing with texture and nuance. I was deeply moved, and also very entertained. It’s rare to leave a show this important feeling like I had a good time, but Duke & Roya pulls that off magnificently.

The design team plays a huge part in piecing together these scenes as they move through time and space, and the collaboration between sound (Taylor J. Williams), lighting (Amina Alexander), and projection (Caite Hevner) design allowed multiple worlds to exist simultaneously on stage. There were moments that were heavily grounded in time, and others that nebulously surrounded the audience with a feeling. At the end of act one, there is a brilliant moment where Duke and Roya share the stage but are in different places at different times. They are united by their helplessness and feeling extremely connected to each other. But rather than show this connection with the characters looking at each other, the design elements lean into the disconnect, placing and moving them like pawns in a chess game, unable to see each other yet unable to be fully present in their separate worlds because they are pondering their connection. This directorial dance is truly beautiful and moving.

Duke & Roya is a must see for the summer off Broadway season. It connects many seemingly separate conversations in a way that is engaging without being deeply depressing. It leaves the audience a lot to ponder from a place of genuine curiosity, not a pedantic brow beating of any particular agenda. It’s a wondrous story with characters who feel very real and alive. And it’s one of the most meaningful productions I have seen in a while. Duke & Roya is an absolute delight.

I attended this performance on a press pass from The Press Room.