Festival Theatre, Malvern – until 1st June 2024
Reviewed by Courie Amado Juneau
5*****
All I knew about tonight’s play was that it was exceptionally well regarded. I was to find out how justified that reputation was…
Beginning with Hanif Khan perfectly setting the scene with some fabulous tabla playing engulfing us instantly in the Afghanistan cultural milieu. Music plays a vital part in the proceedings – the singing bowls being particularly affecting (and what a great name for an instrument!).
The lead actor, Stuart Vincent playing Amir, was on stage all the time, always fully engaging with a massive range of emotions conveyed and he did it all perfectly throughout. This role could have been overdone but he was pitch perfect, sweeping us along into his inner turmoil in all it’s dazzling complexity.
The principle relationships orbiting our lead; his friend Hassan (Yazdan Qafouri), father (Dean Rehman) and wife Soraya (Daphne Kouma) were scripted and acted flawlessly, with a degree of compassion that spoke volumes. We genuinely cared about them all as they were wrought with sensitively and intelligence, in full technicolour widescreen. Stunning performances!
Christopher Glover (playing Rahim Kahn and Omar Faisal) had my favourite line in the entire piece: (speaking of a love across the religious divide), “…it was us against the rest of the world”, “what happened?” asked Amir… I won’t spoil the surprise but his answer gave insights into our shared human condition and truly elevates this play into a work of art.
Bhavin Bhatt as bully Assef gave us a masterclass in emotionally turning on a sixpence, going from ingratiating to menacing instantly with the briefest of looks. A shockingly effective performance. In truth, the entire cast was exceptional with all deserving a mention but due to word count limitations… I will highlight Tiran Aakel playing Ali as every scene he was in was graced with his presence.
With its abstract strips transformed with some clever lighting and back projection into an Israeli West Bank or Mexican/US style border or a city skyline, the set was highly inventive. Draped panels that swung down evoked the Afghan world with an admirable simplicity and character all its own.
This story doesn’t shy away from the more disturbing aspects of human nature – especially the way that we can judge someone as inferior due to religious or cultural differences. Also the truly troubling aspects of how the dehumanizing of others can allow for atrocities and mass populous justification causing cultural myopia to the suffering of our brothers (and sisters) aka fellow human beings. It makes one question many of the assumptions we have regarding the big themes of our time – war, refugees, cultural values.. The play has plenty of humour in it too, giving it a balance that did it credit – it never feels heavy, despite the subject matter.
The audience was held riveted in rapt attention throughout! Sparkling performances from the actors, a scintillating production and a tale that needs to be told in these dark times all added up to a vital night at the theatre. Seeing it made me want to read the original novel (by Khaled Hosseini) so all kudos to Matthew Spangler for a masterful adaptation. I cannot recommend this work highly enough. A phenomenal achievement from all concerned.