The Kite Runner: (Modern Plays)

I became what I am today at the age of twelve. I remember the precise moment, crouching behind a mud wall on a frigid winter day in 1975 . . . looking into a deserted alley. It’s wrong what they say about the past, about how you can bury it, because the past claws its way out. I realize I’ve been looking into that alley for the last 26 years. Afghanistan is a divided country on the verge of war and two childhood friends are about to be torn apart. It's a beautiful afternoon in Kabul and the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither Hassan or Amir can foresee the terrible incident which will shatter their lives forever. Khaled Hosseini's first and international best-selling novel has now been adapted into a stunning stage adaptation by Matthew Spangler. This edition was published for the production at Wyndham's Theatre, London, from 21 December 2016.

About the Author :
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and moved to the United States in 1980. His novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns were international bestsellers, published in thirty-four countries. In 2006 he was named a US goodwill envoy to the United Nations Refugee Agency. He lives in northern California. Matthew Spangler is a playwright, director, and professor of Performance Studies based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner received five San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Awards including Best Original Script. His other plays include Tortilla Curtain, adapted from the novel by T.C. Boyle, which received an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, as well as being a finalist for the San Diego Theatre Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play; Albatross based on the poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which received Boston’s Elliot Norton Theatre Awards for Outstanding Production by a Small Theatre and Outstanding Solo Performance. Other works include one-person shows of James Joyce’s Dubliners and Finnegans Wake; A Paradise It Seems, an adaptation of John Cheever’s short stories; Mozart!, a musical theatre adaptation of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s letters; as well as stage adaptations of John Steinbeck’s fiction; Ernest Hemingway’s short stories; Clyde Edgerton’s Where Trouble Sleeps; and Thomas Wolfe’s The Lost Boy. He has also written articles on the adaptation of literature for the stage, Irish theatre, and intercultural theatre that have appeared in numerous journals and books. His book Staging Intercultural Ireland: New Plays and Practitioner Perspectives (co-edited with Charlotte McIvor) was published by Cork University Press in 2014. Matthew Spangler is Professor of Performance Studies at San José State University in California.

Review :
Hosseini's ability to reach the core of experiences of love and loss places him in the company of such fine chroniclers of the new America as Chang-rae Lee. The Kite Runner is a first novel of unusual generosity, honesty and compassion. A devastating, masterful and painfully honest story ... It is a novel of great hidden intricacy and wisdom, like a timeless Eastern tale. It speaks the most harrowing truth about the power of evil The shattering first novel by Khaled Hosseini ... a rich and soul-searching narrative ... a sharp, unforgettable taste of the trauma and tumult experienced by Afghanis as their country buckled But the play is a phenomenally powerful piece of theatre which for many people will portray Afghanistan in a totally new light An accomplished adaptation by Matthew Spangler ... This show, a European premiere, stands shoulder to shoulder with the best work in the regions and judging by the thronging auditorium ... [they have] a hit on [their] hands that deserves to travel the country beyond its scheduled stops of Brighton and Liverpool Matthew Spangler’s dramatisation, worked on with Hosseini’s help and blessing, rightly seizes on the potent personal story at the heart of the novel: the tale of two boys, Amir and his father’s servant Hassan, brought up as near brothers in the same house. The staging traces their story simply and vivaciously An enthralling tale beautifully told, at once topical and emotionally resonant Matthew Spangler's script . . . preserves Hosseini's sensitive portrait of a friendship marred by tribalism and betrayal. Khaled Hosseini's 2003 novel [has] been transformed into a seriously good piece of storytelling theatre that takes flight just as the onstage kites do . . . This stage adaptation . . . is that rare and magnificent thing: a real sleeper hit . . . it feels in the tradition of War horse and could well be the best page-to-stage show since then . . . it has a similar integrity that speaks of a real commitment by its creative team to telling this story with an unforced economy that is also full of emotional weight. Matthew Spangler's adaptation offers a gripping portrait of two young lives that become inextricably linked. The touching story of the novel is carried on stage by the turbulent ups and downs, echoing the ducking and diving of a fighting kite that will come up winning. Adaptor Matthew Spangler has admirably condensed Hosseini's epic novel . . . there is no sense of constriction . . . Spangler skilfully balances the scenes in Asia with those of the Afghan refugees seeking to maintain their dignity and culture in the West.