"Maybe," he thinks, "it was a hopeless place." As a boy, Amir cravenly betrays his servant and best friend, the Hazara boy Hassan. But the narrator wonders if his people will ever transcend the tribalism that continues to threaten Afghanistan's integrity. The novel portrays the Afghans as an independent and proud people who for decades have defended their country against one invader after another. The first novel to be written in English by an Afghan, it spans the period from before the 1979 Soviet invasion until the reconstruction following the fall of the odious Taliban. The Kite Runner, a novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, takes this clarification one step further. It needed food, not vengeance sympathy, not hate. It pleaded with Americans to realize that Afghanistan was already a devastated country. ![]() For me, The Kite Runner is one of them.After September 11th, as it became apparent that the United States would bomb Afghanistan, an open letter written by an Afghan appeared on the Internet. Some books need to stay on the pages so we readers could bring them to life through our own imaginations. Quite frankly, I found the play boring, yet most in the audience stood and cheered for the performers at the end. I know that I enjoyed the book, yet I found myself indifferent to Amir’s endless narration and some poor choices of dramatic elements in the play. Sitting onstage, he performed for almost the entire show. One of the highlights was the presence of Salar Nader playing the tabla, the twin hand drums used in Hindustani classical music. The poignant moments, dad’s final hug, Hassan’s son in the hospital with Amir praying, should have been moving but lacked drama. The show might have been better served had a younger actor played Amir as a child while the narrator watched from the side. Sirakian, slighter and smaller than Arison, appears younger, so when the two wrestle and play as friends, it’s actually a bit uncomfortable watching a grown man ‘playing’ with a young boy. Since it’s Amir’s story and his flashback, Arison portrays Amir as a boy as well as an adult when he gets to America. Hassan, Amir's friend, played by Eric Sirakian, punctuates his speech, often speaking too loudly. Baba (Faran Tahir as Baba) is brusque and bombastic, emphasizing words. Director Giles Croft also allows his actors to over-emote. Then he turns to the audience, telling us that he didn't tell her but tells us everything he would have told her- things we already witnessed.īecause of flaws in the script, we don’t connect with the characters. He harbors guilt and a soul-crushing secret, so when his fiancee reveals something about her past, he begins to tell her-but stops. There’s also a lot of unnecessary dialogue as Amir tells us what we already know and have seen. How does that event advance our understanding of Amir and his relationships? After learning the doctor’s family is from Russia, Baba refuses to see him. Years later in America, Baba becomes ill. Amir and Baba, his father, are forced to flee Afghanistan when the monarchy is overthrown and the Russians invade. ![]() ![]() Yet specific events when dramatized, often add little substance or understanding for the audience. Spangler attempts to tell too much and often has Amir narrating the events, detailing history quickly and almost dispassionately. The popular maxim in writing is “Show, Don’t Tell” and that’s one way in which the show and playwright Matthew Spangler go astray. So the new show The Kite Runner at The Hayes Theater was in a good position to be a hit. That would suggest a great Broadway ticket potential. Over 7 million copies of the book were sold in the US and made its rounds in book clubs. When young Amir, the main character, fails to intercede in an attack on his friend and servant Hassan, it puts a series of events in play, leading to a lifetime of guilt and recrimination for Amir. The novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini published in 2003, covers tumultuous times in Afghanistan's recent history, from the fall of the monarchy, the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.īut at its heart, it is the story of a father and the son who so desperately wants his love and approval. While the show has name recognition and is sure to attract loyal readers, it also creates expectations-sometimes unreasonable. Adapting a beloved bestselling book into a Broadway show is not without its challenges.
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