Today I have attended an excellent 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning play “Disgraced” performed at the Riverside Theatre in Parramatta and chaired a discussion after watching it. The play was directed by Sarah Goodes, director at a Sydney Theatre Company.

When I arrived in Australia in 1975, Prof Alice Tay told me that in Australia polite dinner conversation should not touch the topics of politics, religion and sex. This was very different to my cultural background – about politics we spoke constantly and about religion and sex from time to time.

The play broke down all the wisdoms I was told by Alice and the established dinner conversation taboos. In fact, veneers of civility are being ripped away in a discussion on religion, politics and sex between characters from different cultural and religious backgrounds. There is a clear “clash of civilisations” taking place.

The play is relevant to those interested in contemporary Australian multiculturalism and islamophobia. The play is about a conversation we need to have! Recommended viewing.