Nottingham Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse’s European première of Khaled Hosseini’s first novel The Kite Runner opens in Nottingham this week.
The book tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul. The tale is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.
It charts a friendship that spans cultures and continents and follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.
Giles Croft, Nottingham Playhouse artistic director who directs The Kite Runner, says, “I found reading it an immensely powerful experience, and so I was delighted to discover Matthew Spangler’s honest, imaginative and theatrical adaptation of such a timeless story of hope and redemption.
“Among its many striking resonances, The Kite Runner tells of the immigrant experience, something that’s central to the development of our own culture and is lived by many people day to day in British cities like Nottingham and Liverpool.
“I was immediately excited by the thought of bringing the play to Europe for the first time.”
He adds, “But it seems to me that it has another profound connection to Britain: as we move towards a complete troop withdrawal from Afghanistan it’s good and important to be reminded of the Afghans’ own stories and histories.
“We’ve inevitably become bound up in the tragedies and politics of this most recent Afghan war and the experiences of Western troops. It’s easy to forget that the Afghans are a people with a complex and rich culture, with their own story to tell, and that story won't stop, or cease to be relevant, when our troops come home.
“The Kite Runner is truly a story of our time, and bringing its vivid and haunting mix of betrayal and personal salvation to the British stage for the first time is a thrilling prospect.”
Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1965. His family sought political asylum in the United States in 1993.
His highly acclaimed second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, will be followed by a new tome, And the Mountains Echoed, due to be published in May.
He is a goodwill envoy for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and works to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan through the Khaled Hosseini Foundation.
The Kite Runner is part of Nottingham Playhouse’s 50th anniversary season and runs from Friday (26 April) until Saturday 18 May.