Here For Now Theatre in Association with Crow’s Theatre, House and Body, and b current Performing Arts: The Surrogate. Written by Mohsin Zaidi & directed by Christopher Manousos, with Set Designer Scott Penner, Lighting Designer Chris Malkowski, and Sound Designer Maddie Bautista. Cast: Fuad Ahmed (Sameer); Thom Nyhuus (Jake); Sarena Parmar (Marya); Antonette Rudder (Christina); Siddharth Sharma (Qasim). March 4, 2026, Crow’s Theatre Studio Theatre. Continues until March 22, 2026; tickets here.
Moments of humour, pathos, and sharp insight punctuate writer Mohsin Zaidi’s The Surrogate in its premiere performance at Crow’s Theatre. Last night’s opening night played to a full house that was appreciative of all of the story’s nuances.
The Story
The play is set entirely in and around the immediate vicinity of a hospital bed in what we’re told is Hammond Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. The location is important.
Marya is experiencing complications from pregnancy at 28 weeks, and the prognosis for her and the baby is not clear until the end of the play. She’s also a surrogate, paid by gay couple Sameer, a lawyer, and Jake, an aspiring writer, and what she’s called is variously debated throughout the course of the play.
Is she the mother, as nurse Christine Bedford insists? Or is she simply the surrogate, as Sameer emphatically asserts?
On Sameer’s side is the fact that the impending baby is not genetically related to Marya. She is what is known technically as a gestational carrier, and all the genetic material comes from the would-be parents. Marya went into the surrogacy contract fully informed, and signed statements of her intent, including what should happen in the case of a medical emergency.
But, from Marya’s side, how can you carry a child in your body and not be affected by it? At the heart of surrogacy and adoption is, after all, the idea that nurture is more important than nature.
As the night progresses, and Marya’s condition fluctuates, a dizzying array of issues and perspectives are revealed.
Dialogue
Zaidi’s script is, naturally, heavy on dialogue. There are many one-liner zingers that fly during the early parts of the story as it unfolds, and they elicited a lot of laughs from the audience. His writing is sharp and truthful, both when it comes to revealing character, and the many issues at stake.
As the situation becomes more and more complex, much of the story unfolds in arguments — between Sameer and Christine the nurse, Sameer and his mother over the phone, between Sameer and Jake, and between Sameer, Jake, and Qasim later in the play.
Those disputes unlock the myriad of perspectives on the issue of surrogacy and family creation in contemporary society. Surrogacy is legal in 40 American states, including Texas, where the birth was intended to take place — but not in Louisiana, where Jake and Sameer have no rights as a couple or prospective parents. Is it a legitimate practice? Should it be? Does it exploit women — and poor women in particular?
Sameer is a New York City lawyer, and he comes from a wealthy family, one who disapproves of his gay marriage. His mother refuses to even acknowledge Jake’s existence. Marya and her son are impoverished by the lingering medical bills from her husband’s cancer treatment. To her, the surrogacy contract was a way of moving forward — but at what cost? And, if she does want to keep the baby, something she would be able to do in Louisiana, how will she pay for any of the medical costs, including what she would have to reimburse to the gay couple?
The conversations and arguments also reveal secrets, including the state of Jake and Sameer’s relationship, Marya’s past, and even nurse Christine’s family situation.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the many, many layers of meaning and revelation of the plot. Zaidi’s script is brilliant in posing those questions and issues, and enlarging their dimensions, but leaving the final verdict for the audience to decide for themselves.
Characters & Acting
Christopher Manousos’ direction is adept in drawing out the big ideas presented in the story via characters that feel real. Each is much more complicated and holds more depth than is initially presented.
Sameer is something of the villain in the script, with his propensity to obfuscate on important issues, and throw his money and the privilege it brings around to get his way. But, he also reveals the underside, a man who’s still essentially struggling to assert his identity, particularly within a domineering family dynamic.
Fuad Ahmed gives a nicely nuanced performance in the role, a rich jerk with a heart that’s a little too soft and fraught with uncertainty for his own comfort. When the chips are finally all down, though, he shows that he is capable of love, and of at least trying to do the right thing.
As Jake, Thom Nyhuus embodies the calmer, more centred partner in the marriage. He comes across as empathetic and sympathetic. But, perhaps he’s a little too complacent of what he knows Sameer is capable of, and even complicit in some of his deception. He wants the baby so much that he’s ignoring a lot of warning signs.
Sarena Parmar’s Marya is a woman at the end of her wits. She’s being challenged both physically and emotionally, and Parmar is excellent and convincing in what must be an exhausting role.
Antonette Rudder’s Christine comes across as no-nonsense, pragmatic — the voice of reason, and what you’d expect from a nurse. But is she really? She’s clearly homophobic, and dead set against the idea of surrogacy. Is it just her own prejudice, rather than pragmatism and realism, that is revealed throughout the course of the play? And, even as she argues with Sameer and Jake, she reminds Qasim that his mother went into the contract with her eyes open.
Siddharth Sharma as Qasim, Marya’s son, enters the story towards the end of the play. More than just another convenient complication and antagonist towards Sameer and Jake, he fleshes out Marya’s story, and his own character’s conflict as an 18 year old contemplating issues he can’t possibly fathom, in the short time he has on stage.
While Christine and Qasim enter and exit the space entirely, Manousos’ genius touch is having Sameer and Jake often simply sit in designated seats among the audience when they’re off stage. The lights dim, and they freeze in place. It’s quite effective as a ruse to removing them quickly from the action, but then allowing for them to instantly jump back into the story at the right moment.
Design
Kudos to the show’s design team of Scott Penner (set), Chris Malkowski (lighting), and Maddie Bautista (sound).
Overall, the show’s design is ingenious, and created several spaces within the area, including hospital room, hallway, and in one scene, the public bathroom. Crow’s Studio Theatre is a long, narrow space, set with two rows of chairs around three sides. At the fourth side is a hospital bed, a single chair, and a hospital monitor, all in clinical white.
A mirror is hung above the bed, set at an angle that allows the audience to see Marya even when she is lying flat. It’s a very clever way of keeping her visible, while also setting her apart, and emphasizing her role as someone whose situation within the story is unique. She plays a role, even when the character isn’t actively engaging in the scene at hand.
The floor was set with rubbery looking tiles in a hospital appropriate blue. Lighting was used in creative ways, flashing off and on rapidly to signal changes in scene, with theatrical haze to add to the atmosphere. The bed was lit in an appropriately harsh, hospital light when it was an active component in the scene, and dimmed when the action shifted elsewhere.
Bits of music, electronic compositions that sometimes resembled children’s music, other times was more atmospheric in nature, wandered in and out of the dialogue. It served to reinforce the action and emotions at play.
Final Thoughts
Will Sameer and Jake take over as parents of the child? Should they?
Playwright Mohsin Zaidi’s intent was to create a situation on stage that sparked dialogue and debate, and he effectively does just that, leaving none of the basic issues either answered or resolved.
Except, perhaps, one: that creating a family is anything but a clinical, straightforward or dry legal matter of contractual details.
The audience dispersed after the performance still talking about it all.
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