Reportedly more than 30 million copies of Khaled Hosseini’s pre-9/11 Afghanistan-set novel of friendship, betrayal, death-defying risk and eventual redemption, The Kite Runner, have been sold worldwide and countless millions more saw the powerful 2007 movie adaptation. But even if you are already familiar with this tale that spans decades of evolving Middle Eastern history, you will want to see the stage version, now on view at the Kravis Center for a too brief one-weekend stay.
With narration by Amir (Ramzi Khalaf), the son of a wealthy Afghani landowner, the play script draws far more on Hosseini’s colorful verbal descriptions than the film necessarily did. Still, if this is not your first encounter with Amir’s story, do not doubt that it continues to have visceral dramatic impact.
From his comfortable adult vantage point in his adopted home in San Francisco, Amir takes us back to a pivotal moment in his life when he was a 12-year-old boy in Kabul. There, despite differences of cultural background and economic standing, he was inseparable from his playmate Hassan (Shahzeb Zahid Hussain), the son of the family’s manservant of many years.
Together they excelled at combative kite-flying tournaments, with Hassan particularly skilled at running down and retrieving the kites of their competitors. And on one fateful day in 1975, Amir and Hassan win a kite tourney, but also incur the wrath of a trio of bullies, who physically — and perhaps sexually — abuse Hassan. Amir looks on as his virtual brother is bloodied and battered, unable or unwilling to save him, an act of cowardice that will haunt him for decades. Doubling down on his transgression, Amir tells a lie that implicates Hassan and leads to a permanent break in their relationship.
Fast forward to a time soon after 9/11, when the Taliban overrun his homeland, Amir receives a phone call beckoning him back to Afghanistan with the potential for redemption, “a way to be good again” that would involve the rescue of Hassan’s son, Sohrab, now orphaned by Taliban brutality.
Playwright Matthew Spangler expertly harnesses Hosseini’s epic novel and director Giles Croft stages the script simply and effectively. This production, which originated in London and had a short three-month Broadway run in 2022, features a simple, artful scenic design by Barney George that keeps the focus on the storytelling.
The play’s second act transports us to Northern California, as Amir assimilates to American ways and takes a bride, the willowy Soraya (Awesta Zarif). While this is an important part of Amir’s life journey, it feels like a lesser subplot compared to his magnetic return to Afghanistan in the hope of repaying his debt to the late Hassan.
Rarely offstage in the production’s two-and-a-half hours, Khalaf heads a versatile 13-member cast, with considerable doubling of roles, and an onstage tabla player (Salar Nader) whose drumming adds much to the aural atmosphere. Ultimately, The Kite Runner brings the mysterious, staunchly foreign world of Afghanistan into focus for Western audiences, taking a political canvas and turning it into a hauntingly human one. In each of its incarnations, Hosseini’s very personal tale makes for compelling reading and viewing.
THE KITE RUNNER, Kravis Center Dreyfoos Hall, 701 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach. Through Sun., May 19. $25-$95. 561-832-7469.