AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
Streaming October 5-19, 2026
AMERICAN NIGHTMARE
By Hassan Abdulrazzak
Directed by Donnacadh O’Briain
Dramaturgs: Callan McCarthy and William Gregory
Sam, a young American diplomat on the rise, has one job: get the world’s richest man to sign. The hurricanes are coming, the clock is ticking, and Sheik Hammed, brilliant, unreadable, and utterly in control, has other ideas about what it will take to put pen to paper.
What begins as a routine negotiation in a Dubai conference room becomes a dangerous game of power, desire, and complicity, as two men circle each other across the widening gulf between empires in decline and empires on the rise. Sharp, seductive, and unflinching, American Nightmare asks how far we’ll go, and what we’ll become, when the cost of doing the right thing gets too high.
Developed by The Alcove at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, produced by Caridad Svich.
Cast: Tom Byrne, Khalid Laith, Lanna Joffrey, and Joe Richardson
Stage Manager: Caden Cristiano
Creative Team
Cast
The Lortel Theatre’s programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
Programs supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
The Alcove New Play Development Program is funded, in part, by a grant from the New York City Tourism Foundation.
This program was funded, in part, by the Canada Council for the Arts.