Birmingham Rep, Nottingham Playhouse and Leeds Playhouse are to collaborate on a new production of A Thousand Splendid Suns, Ursula Rani Sarma’s play based on Khaled Hosseini’s sequel to The Kite Runner.
Roxana Silbert, who directed the European première of the play at the Rep in May 2019, said, “I'm really delighted to be returning to the brilliant Birmingham Rep stage which I love, and I'm honoured to be revisiting this beautiful adaptation of A Thousand Splendid Suns, one of the final plays I directed at the Rep before I ended my tenure as artistic director in 2019. This is a new production in response to the evolving challenges women face in Afghanistan—and sadly even more urgent and necessary today than it was six years ago.”
Playwright Ursula Rani Sarma commented, “this play is about the immense strength and endurance of women and how they can survive tremendous suffering to keep those they love alive. It’s also about how even in the darkest of times and places, love can grow and sustain the human spirit beyond all pain and hardship.
“It’s about friendship and loyalty, courage and selflessness, grief and violence. What the play has to say about love, endurance and survival is very much worth listening to for a contemporary audience. There is beauty and strength at the heart of A Thousand Splendid Suns and I feel so proud to be part of its evolution from novel to stage.”
Hosseini’s novel is the story of three generations of women finding hope in the unlikeliest of places. It is set in 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war. As the Taliban takes over, life becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear. Love grows and sustains the human spirit even during the hardest of times.
The cast comprises David Ahmad (Babi, Mullah Faizullah Zaman and Militiaman), Rina Fatania (Mariam), Kerena Jagpal (Laila), Jonas Khan (Rasheed), Jonny Khan (Tariq, Wakil and driver), Noah Manzoor (Zalmai and Wakil’s wife), Peyvand Sadeghian (Nana, Fariba and doctor), Tahir Shah (Jalis, Abdul Sharif, interrogator and militia man) and Humera Syed (Young Mariam, Asia and nurse).
The creative team includes set and costume designer Simon Kenny, lighting designer Matt Haskins, sound designer Clive Meldrum, composer Elaha Soroor, movement director Kuldip Singh Barmi, fight directors Rachid Sabitri and Jessica Hrabowsky, casting director Helena Palmer and assistant director Massi Safa.
A Thousand Splendid Suns will open at Birmingham Rep from Friday 11 April until Saturday 3 May. Press night will be on Wednesday 16 April. It then transfers to Nottingham Playhouse from Tuesday 13 until Saturday 25 May and Leeds Playhouse from Wednesday 28 May until Saturday 14 June.