FOLLOWING its world premiere in San Jose, Matthew Spanglers stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner had its European premiere in this staging, co-produced by Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse, in the spring of 2013.
Director Giles Croft’s vision of the work plays out with beautiful symbolism on Barney George’s tremendously imaginative set, and is accompanied by an atmospheric score from Jonathan Girling, which includes a great deal of live music and sound. The elegant simplicity with which both Spangler’s script and Croft’s direction tell the complex story has won the production a great many fans over the years, leading to multiple tours and hugely successful runs in the West End and on Broadway. Now it is back on tour in both the UK and USA, and is revisiting one of its original homes at Liverpool’s Playhouse this week.
The tagline for the show ‘There is a way to be good again’ speaks volumes, both about the actual narrative of the show and the bigger story that it effectively symbolises, but the focus is on friendship, loyalty, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption.
Spanning generations and continents, the play begins as the adult Amir – now a successful author living in the United States – looks back to his childhood and his friendship with Hassan, the son of his father’s servant, when they lived in Afghanistan during the rise of the Taliban. With the innocence of childhood, Amir does not recognise the tensions between Pashtun and Hazara, which give rise to the taunts about this friendship from a group of older boys led by the brutal Assef. This bullying escalates until a savage assault on Hassan changes everything. Amir fails to act, watching the attack in fear, and wracked by guilt he cannot reconcile his feelings, which leads to a further betrayal and the departure of Hassan and his father.
With the passage of time Amir wears down the scorn of General Taheri to win the hand of Taheri’s daughter Soraya. Eventually fate brings them to a place where they both learn of the tragic outcome of Amir’s earlier betrayal, and discover a way to make amends and begin the healing process through the adoption of a son, Sohrab.
This excellent new touring cast is led by Stuart Vincent and Yazan Quafori as Amir and Hassan/Sohrab, both of whom play the parts of children with a wonderful sense of innocence. Daphne Kouma as Soraya and Dean Rayman as Asif’s Baba are equally strong, and Bhavin Bhatt has genuine menace as both the young Assef and his yet more terrifying older self. Notably, the one cast member from the original 2013 run who is still on stage has no dialogue, but still has a powerful voice. He is Hanif Khan, the tabla player who occupies a spot on the forestage throughout, providing much of the live accompaniment.
At the show’s moving climax, Amir observes that, as the spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time. We can see that after all the injury that has been done it will take a long time to truly find redemption, but that there is indeed a way to be good again.
Following its week at the Playhouse The Kite Runner continues its UK tour with a further 9 venues currently booking, whilst another cast are running a parallel tour of the United States.
Star rating: 4½ stars
Review by Nigel Smith
