In an extraordinary theatrical coup, Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse and Nottingham Playhouse will stage the European première of Matthew Spangler’s stage adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s international bestseller, The Kite Runner. Directed by Giles Croft, the cast features Ben Turner in the part of Amir and Farshid Rokey who will be appearing as Hassan. The production is at Liverpool Playhouse from Thurs 13th June to Sat 6th July.
Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel The Kite Runner first hit the bookshelves in 2003 and became a best seller in the United States, voted the Reading Group Book of the Year for 2006 and 2007 before being made into a B.A.F.T.A. and Golden Globe-nominated film in 2007. 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.
Nottingham Playhouse Artistic Director Giles Croft said: “I found reading The Kite Runner an immensely powerful experience, and so I was delighted to discover Matthew Spangler’s honest, imaginative and theatrical adaptation. 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.”
Giles Croft is a playwright and director. In 1988 he established Absolute Classics, a play imprint devoted to publishing foreign classic texts translated into English. Giles joined the National Theatre in 1989 as Literary Manager and was appointed Artistic Director of Nottingham Playhouse in 1999. For Nottingham Playhouse his directing credits include The Price, a co-production with Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse in 2009, Of Mice and Men, The Importance of Being Earnest, Forever Young, Private Lives and The Ashes.
First produced by The San Jose Repertory in 2009 Matthew Spangler’s stage adaptation received five San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle Awards. A playwright, director, and professor based in the San Francisco Bay Area, his other plays 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; Thomas Wolfe’s The Lost Boy; Clyde Edgerton’s Where Trouble Sleeps; and T.C. Boyle’s Tortilla Curtain (recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award).
The ensemble cast is led by Ben Turner, well-known for his role as Jay Faldren in B.B.C.’s Casualty. Turner has also appeared on screen in Syriana and Adulthood while his theatre credits include Richard II (Donmar Warehouse) and Awake and Sing (Almeida). Alongside Turner will be Farshid Rokey (Mogadishu, Lyric Hammersmith/ Royal Exchange and Tour; Family Tree, HBO/BBC), while their tormentor, Assef, is portrayed by Nicholas Karimi (War Horse, National Theatre/ New London Theatre; The Double, Theatre Royal Bath).
Also included in the cast are Antony Bunsee (Richard III, Henry V, R.S.C.; Passage to India, Shared Experience, Eastenders, BBC), Emilio Doorgasingh (Eastenders, B.B.C., Kingdom Of Heaven), Nicholas Khan (Voyager, Arcola Theatre, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Nottingham Playhouse/ Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse), David Ahmad (Potted Potter, Little Shubert Theatre, New York; The Good Soul of Szechuan, Watford Palace Theatre), Ezra Khan (War Correspondents, National Theatre Studio; Macbeth, Barbican), Waleed Akhtar (Salmon Fishing in the Yemen; Betrayed, Tron Theatre Company) and Lisa Zahra (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Torch Theatre).
Renowned tabla player Hanif Khan will play live on stage, providing a unique musical accompaniment to the play. Designer Barney George’s previous work includes They Only Come at Night and Mapping the City for Slung Low and The Count of Monte Cristo at West Yorkshire Playhouse. The creative team are lighting designer Charles Balfour, Composer/Musical Director Jonathan Girling, sound designer Drew Baumohl, projection designer William Simpson, movement director Kitty Winter, and fight director Philip d’Orleans.
Tickets for The Kite Runner are available from the Playhouse Theatre Box office on Williamson Square, by telephone on 0151 7094776 or online at www.everymanplayhouse.com. Tickets are priced at £12-£23. There are matinees available on the 20th, 27th June and 4th July at 1.30pm and on the 22nd, 29th June and 6th July at 2pm.