Review: The Kite Runner hits the heights of emotion
The crux is his childhood friendship with Hassan, the son of his father’s servant. The gulf between them is a matter of identity as well as affluence and class: Amir’s family is Pashtun, Hassan’s Hazara, an ill-treated minority.
When Hassan is brutally assaulted by a nationalistic youth, Amir fails to stand up for him. His shame is the force that drives the plot and determines the fates of Hassan and his family.
It’s a powerful story with many compelling themes.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe production is given cohesion and atmosphere by Hanif Khan’s mesmerising on-stage tabla playing.
The cast of 12 create individual characters but also suggest a whole society. Emilio Doorgasingh as Amir’s father Baba gives a towering performance. He makes Baba’s courage (‘Ask him where his shame is’, addressed to a Russian soldier intent on rape) and fallibility equally memorable.
David Armad as Amir is engaging and sympathetic – an Everyman figure, full of remorse, who finds unexpected resources within himself to confront the consequences of his past actions.
Jo Ben Ayed gives a heart-rending, haunting performance as Hassan, and then repeats this as Sohrab, Hassan’s son; the two outsiders, father and son, blending into one.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdThe kite-flying alluded to in the play’s title gives a lyrical, optimistic note to this multi-layered, unsettling tale.
The Kite Runner is on at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield until Saturday, October 21.