Seattleplays.com review By Tom Scanlon			Back of the Throat Theater Schmeater Closes June 18
	What a play: Terrifyingly timely, full of grave-black wit, muscular-yet-realistic dialogue charging forward with freight-engine speed – yet as ambiguous as these wretched times. And what a production: the consistently-good Schmeater rises to the occasion, pouring its collective guts and soul into a brave, lean, lithe, near-faultless illustration of a young play (second production) that is destined for a long, rich life. One can picture a bigger-budgeted, bigger-name production, but not a much better one.      As an Arab-American writer being “investigated,” Alex Samuels at first seems a curious choice. He might not look “classically” (or, for that matter, “stereotypically”) Arabic, but that soon becomes irrelevant, as he builds layers upon layers of this Everyman – or, at least, EveryLiberal, living in an uber-conservative world.     Erik Hill and Chris Mayse are spectacular as Government-Men, armed with the Patriot Act and extremely dangerous. They begin as a humorous pair, then morph into horrific thugs – all the worse for their blame-the-victim attitudes.      Forget Guantanamo Bay: they turn a studio apartment into an American gulag.      Kate Czajowski gives three brief, memorable performances, as a librarian, ex-girlfriend of the writer and stripper; she is a fast-talking, crafty, explosive actress to keep an eye on, and hopefully will get some bigger parts in the near future.      Yussef El Guindi’s writing is rooted by Mamet-esque dialogue – but, really, better, as it avoids Mamet’s distracting tics; he is at his best in ambivalent, vaguely sinister Pinter territory. Which, apparently, America has become.     The direction by Mark Jared Zufelt is crisp and powerful, for the most part making the most of a tough space, although there are too many back-of-the-head views.      This is a hand-grenade of a play, and you never know when it’s going to go off.