The Kite Runner flies with a tale of self-identity and redemption
Spangler’s adaptation distills the story into one of deep emotional impact that is at times tragic, unnerving and, surprisingly, funny but not light-hearted.
At its heart, Khaled Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner” is a story about relationships.
It portrays the relationships between its main character, Amir (Ramzi Khalaf), and that of his childhood friend Hassan (Shahzeb Zahid Hussain); the uneasy bond of Amir with his father Baba (Haythem Noor); and that of his father with his servant Ali (Hassan Nazari-Robati).
It is also about remorse, guilt, questions of self-identity, strained friendship and, ultimately, a chance for redemption.
The play, adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler, is a deep and emotional trip that begins in Afghanistan in 1973 before the coup that established a new republic and stretches to San Francisco before eventually returning to the Central Asian country at the beginning of the 21st century.
Growing up, Amir and Hassan, both raised by their fathers in the same home without mothers, are as close as brothers, albeit brothers from different ethnicities who follow different strains of Islam—the minority Hazaras who are Shia and the majority Sunni Pashtuns.
The two compete as a team, with Amir in the lead and Hassan supporting him, in a local kite running competition—an activity in which participants fly kites that have broken shards of glass glued to the strings from which they fly. The idea is to cut opponents’ kites free from their strings, then run to acquire the fallen toy.
After the pair win the local competition and Amir’s father shows real public pride in his son for the first time, an event occurs that will shatter the relationship between the two and, as a result, also break the bond between Baba and Ali.
The violent and brutal event is fraught with the inequities of ethnicity, class, social status and wealth.
It is the fulcrum that causes the rest of the story to pivot and tells a tale of regret, shame and eventually redemption.
The work grapples with the theme of what it means to confront the person we are rather than the person we believe we would be and how one eventually finds peace and internal forgiveness.
Spangler’s adaptation sheds much of Hosseini’s novel, but rather than lose the emotional impact of the book it distills the story into one of deep emotional impact that is at times tragic, unnerving and, surprisingly, funny but not light-hearted.
Special attention should be given to the musical interludes, which include the playing of standing bells from the stage, as well as the tabla work of Salar Nader from a perch at the front of the stage, and the subtle and invoking set.
Directed by Giles Croft, “The Kite Runner” is a focused work whose central themes will linger long after the play ends.
“The Kite Runner” is being staged at the Benedum Center through May 12. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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