A mob boss is gunned down as a young idealistic man seeks employment. Somehow, the confluence of these events prompts the mafia to go “woke” in the madcap production D.E.I. Another Day from Hindustaani improv company Hinprov. (D.E.I. stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, a decades-old framework that was widely adopted in the corporate world in the early 2020s.)
Amit (played by Jeff Fernandes) finds himself at the head of the mafia, bringing new hiring practices. In branching out, he hires a ragtag group of people from India (Gunjan, Shreya Parashar, Vinay Sagar) who, at first glance, might have been terrible fits for crime. But they all possess skills to increase productivity, like tracking and saving bullets. The resistant-to-change killer, Tony (Sachin Sharma), is won over when even he learns a killer like himself can find a place in this crazy woke world.
In just under an hour, the ensemble of five manage to satirize and send up workplace politics, racial stereotypes, opposition to D.E.I. initiatives, mob movies and Bollywood. The rapid fire jokes fly fast and hit hard, killing opposition to D.E.I. with laughter.
D.E.I. Another Day plays until July 11 at Soulpepper’s Weyni Mengesha Theatre.
