In Broadway’s ‘The Kite Runner,’ redemption drifts in the wind
Welcome to Curtain Call, our mostly queer take on the latest openings on Broadway and beyond.When The Kite Runner was originally published in 2003, the U.S.
was still in the early stages of the war in Afghanistan. Our collective consciousness hovered over the trauma of 9/11 and fear of the extremist Taliban.
As a result, we had little understanding of Afghanistan’s internal conflicts, including the prejudices facing the Hazaras, an ethnic group long persecuted and intertwined with the fallout from the Soviet-Afghan war.Novelist Khaled Hosseini found humanity in the sprawling, complex narrative through the friendship of two boys whose fates would be undermined by circumstances beyond their control and decisions that would haunt them decades after.The Kite Runner spent two years on the New York Times best-seller list, and in 2009 playwright Matthew Spangler adapted it for the stage.
The Broadway production revisits Nottingham Playhouse Theatre Company and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse’s 2013 production, originally directed by Giles Croft.Related: This legendary Sondheim musical finally makes it to San Francisco 51 years after its Broadway debutLeaving the Hayes Theater after the two-hour and 30-minute production, I felt agitated.
