Ayad Akhtar's one-act play Disgraced is about Amir Kapoor, an American-born lawyer whose Muslim background interferes with his promotion to partner at his Jewish-run legal firm. Amir learns he has not made partner during a dinner party in his Upper East Side apartment, sending him into an alcohol-fueled rage. The revelation is followed by the news that his wife Emily had an affair with a museum curator, and Amir beats Emily until her face is bloodied. The play ends with the couple's divorce and Amir learning that his disgraceful behavior has provoked his nephew to give up on ideas of assimilation and turn to Islamic radicalization.
First staged in 2012, Disgraced confronts themes of Islamophobia, identity politics, orientalism, and the place of Muslim-Americans and other minorities in post–9/11 American society. Featuring a multiracial central cast, the play foregrounds diverging views on Islamic and Judaic tradition, interpretations of the Quran, racial profiling, surveillance of Muslim communities, and whether assimilation into American culture is possible for racialized peoples. In a 2017 scholarly article, Dr. Robin E. Field writes that "Akhtar’s play challenges audiences to engage more deeply with the stereotypes and essentialized notions of identity that are invoked for Muslim men."
Disgraced received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. According to American Theatre, it was the most-staged play of the 2015–16 season.
