5 STARS, April 16-21. The Kite Runner at the Yvonne Arnaud this week is a superb tour de force. This is an absorbing dramatic narrative, utterly compelling
Betty Zapata
Matthew Spangler wrote this adaptation for the stage of the award-winning epic book by Khaled Hosseini a year before the film of it was made. In my opinion it matches the quality of the original book far better than the screen version.
Set in Afghanistan and the USA, over thirty turbulent years of Afghanistan’s history, the plot follows the fortunes of Amir, scion of a privileged Pashtoun family in the 1970s, through the rise of the Sunni Taliban’s brutal regime, the Russian invasion and the family’s flight as poverty-stricken refugees to California.
Amir is a complex character for whom we feel emotions ranging from contempt to pity, as he fights for his father’s love and his own self-respect, aware of his own weak nature. His contemptible betrayal of his closest childhood companion, Hassan, is the result of his own envy of his father’s preference for young Hassan, as well as the rigid class system that separates them socially though not as playmates, “never friends” as the young Amir insists. But this is also a tale of confession, resurrection and atonement.
Betty Zapata
The central role of Amir, who narrates and acts out the tangled story, is as demanding as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Raj Ghatak takes it on with all its nuances and demands, continually on stage, steering us through the torments he experiences and inflicts, with tremendous power. Hassan, played by Jo Ben Ayed, is a moving portrait of servility, courage and loyalty, in powerful contrast to Amir’s arrogance and self-centred cowardice. “The fastest kite runner in Kabul” moves like the wind to retrieve his master’s kite, darts like a sprite to save his friend.
The production is superb. Ensemble scenes: the kite competition in Kabul’s crowded streets; the refugees’ arrival in the alien city of San Francisco; a wedding; a party, all are choreographed perfectly. Music runs through the play, with Hanif Khan, an eminent tabla player, playing on stage beforehand and coming in with atmospheric rhythms as the action takes its roller-coaster twists. At key moments of tension, Tibetan Singing Bowls are carried on to provide their eerie notes, and huge whirring wooden rattles are swung by the ensemble to heighten other dramatic moments. There’s live singing of folk songs and Pashtoun popular songs.
Straight from the West End, “The Kite Runner” is a multi-dimensional dramatic classic. Interwoven in this story of two best friends are themes of Afghan history, ethnicity and class, trans-national refugees, personal, family and patriotic honour, father-son relationships, and above all, guilt and redemption.
We went home marvelling at the intensity of the experience. The theatre was full on the first night – if you can get a ticket, don’t miss this!
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