Kite Runner (play)

Kite Runner is a stage adaption of Afghan novelist's Khaled Hosseini's 2003 book, The Kite Runner. Aside from sharing the 2003 book as a source, it is unrelated to the 2007 film The Kite Runner.^[1] The play was adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler and premiered at San Jose Repertory Theatre in 2009.

Description

The fast-paced play depicts most of what happens in the book.^[1] As in the book, The Kite Runner is narrated by Amir, who is obsessed with an "unatoned sin" he committed as a well-off child in 1970s Kabul: Amir betrayed his childhood friend, servant, and kite running partner Hasan when Amir's cowardice, and his desperate need to please his father, cause him to abandon Hasan in the face to a vicious and shocking attack by a neighborhood bully. In 2001, Amir has settled in America when he receives a call telling him: "There is a way to be good again." He then takes a dangerous trip, on the eve of the American invasion, into Taliban-controlled Kabul.^[2]

Reception

The San Francisco Chronicle pointed out in 2009 that Spangler spends the whole first act on the first quarter of the novel, giving the remainder "a kind of CliffsNotes rush".^[1] The Globe and Mail gave a 2009 production 3 out of 4 stars, calling it "a ripping good yarn", but "dangerously simplistic about modern-day Afghanistan".^[2] The Financial Times gave a 2013 production 3 out of 5 stars, stating that "the novel roams through decades and across continents, is brilliantly evocative and is written in the first person ... while this structure works so well on the page, on stage it always makes for a slightly awkward experience, in which the characters appear in short illustrative episodes, rather than driving the story."^[3]

In the UK, a Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company production, directed by Giles Croft, was shortlisted for the 2014 Best Regional Production in the WhatsOnStage Awards, but lost to an Oliver! production.^[4]

On September 1st 2016 it was announced that the successful Nottingham Playhouse production would transfer to London's West End from December 2016.

References