Draw the Circle

Draw the Circle by Mashuq Mushtaq Deen is a one-man, autobiographical play that tells the story of Deen's gender transition through the thoughts and feelings of his friends, family, and acquaintances. Deen, who was raised as a girl named Shireen, performs all of the parts with quick changes and only a slide on a screen denoting the name of the character.

Characters include his white, cisgender partner, Molly, his Indian father and mother, friends from high school and grad school, a therapist, Indian trans men and women, and various other friends and family members.

The play first introduces Molly. She is packing for a trip to visit with Deen's parents for Thanksgiving; she complains as she packs. She hasn't seen Deen's parents in two years, and she thinks that now she'll have to "prove" herself to them all over again. Molly is neither a Muslim nor an Indian, and she is a female, which means she is not the ideal partner for Deen, according to Deen's traditional parents. She recalls that Deen's parents have not wanted to see him in two years and that Deen said he wanted to one day take care of his aging parents with her. She doesn't know how that would possible considering that they've written him off the way they have.



Next, we meet Deen's father (still played by Deen in the same clothing). He tells a joke about a father calling his son to inform him that he is getting a divorce from his mother. The son calls to tell his sister, and both siblings decide that they will fly to see their parents on Thanksgiving so they can sort the whole thing out. When the father hangs up, he turns to his wife and tells her: "Oh they're coming for Thanksgiving and paying their own travel fare!"

The image of the joking father shifts abruptly to the Indian mother. She laments, inviting her "daughter" for Thanksgiving. After her first child was a son, she prayed for a daughter, but she confesses, "Shireen has been one long headache since the time she became a teenager." She blames the American culture, stating that as a former pediatrician, she is aware of parent-child relationships in America. She adds that both of her kids studied hard and were valedictorians. As soon as Shireen went to college in New York, she began "hanging out with red hair, blue hair, homosexuals, Madonna, Michael Jackson—everyone has more influence over your kids than you do."

Shireen had shaved her head, and Mother admits that she didn't want her to come home. She didn't want people talking about her and didn't want her patients to see her. She regrets leaving India for America and its moral indecency. Cutting back to Father, we learn that they decided to cancel the holidays that year due to Shireen's odd appearance.



The play also has characters from outside of Deen's direct sphere. A high school friend, for example, describes the time he went to the prom with Deen. He says that Deen always dressed strangely with a handkerchief in her hair. He thought nothing of it when she picked out his tux for him, and he was utterly shocked to see her in a dress for the first time at the prom.

Deen also plays her young niece, who is unwittingly caught in the crossfire between Deen and Deen’s parents. The niece, Rabia, says the Thanksgiving in Connecticut with "Daddy's brother, Shireen" may be stressful. Her grandparents are fun to be with as long as you don't talk about Shireen. In the same monologue, she changes Shireen's gender, saying, "She's nice too. Daddy says Shireen is."

Deen plays the parts on a darkened stage with only a chair and a screen behind. When the character changes, he steps into a different spotlight or changes his position. The name of the character "Mother" or "Molly," etc. is then displayed on a screen behind him.



The script includes many footnotes on how Deen channeled the characters' emotions and gives more on the characters' backgrounds. Deen explains that "Molly" is actually his partner Elizabeth and that he was able to recreate her emotions by reading her journals (with her permission). He also notes that his parents had a difficult time as immigrants. When they first moved to the U.S., his mother and father couldn't find work in the same area and had to live in different towns, visiting each other whenever possible. For this reason, his father missed his older brother's birth.

The Washington Post said of the play, it "chronicles, with surprising empathy, not just what it was like to slowly, painfully come to terms with transition, but what it was like for loved ones who shunned everything about you.” BroadwayWorld.com wrote, "Deen's extreme vulnerability and creativity coalesce to make it a vitally important piece of theater."