If you were, for a moment, beginning to worry a little less about Islamic extremism, take the time next week (it’s the show’s final week) to catch Jonathan Leaf’s extraordinary and disturbing new play, The Caterers, at Altered Stages in New York City, which I saw this afternoon. The demands of the day job mean that I don’t have the time to do a timely review but the great and incomparably more talented Terry Teachout has done so<a href=”

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112923887866568101-sNx4KRylCzJ84KTlqAT_UMDJkbU_20051113.html?mod=blogs

“> here.

The broad outline of the play is very simple: three individuals are taken hostage in a screening room by a Muslim extremist determined to steal the copy of a film he deems to be blasphemous. What follows is eighty utterly compelling and claustrophobic minutes that left me drained, depressed and profoundly uneasy. Relaxing drama, this isn’t, but if you want to be reminded of the nature of the threat that we face, this is the play to do it. It’s a production that deserves a wider audience. Time for HBO to step up to the plate?

One quibble, the smug, beastly Englishman (ahem…) is, perhaps, too much of a caricature, but then I would say that, wouldn’t I?