The Kite Runner at Blackpool Grand
Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
The Kite Runner has been described by The Stage as being “the best page to stage show” since War Horse and luckily for us it flies back up North and into Blackpool’s Grand Theatre this spring.
Following its publication in 2003, Khaled Hosseini’s novel was translated into 60 different languages and sold 31.5 million copies. Now, the story has been adapted into an extraordinary piece of theatre, with storytelling that soars as high as a kite.
Based on Hosseini’s sensational bestseller, The Kite Runner paints a gripping portrait of two boys who grow up in the same household in Kabul in the 1970’s. Amir is the son of the affluent widowed father in Afghanistan and Hassan is the son of the father’s trusted Hazara servant. The boys learn everything together – how to walk, read and fly kites – but will their lives follow the same paths forever?
Set in Afghanistan around the time of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent rise of the Taliban – an incident of childhood betrayal casts a guilty shadow over Amir’s life. Five years later, the Soviet Union militarily intervenes in Afghanistan, Amir and his father escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then later settle in California where they establish a new and very different way of life.
Adapted for the stage by Matthew Spangler and suitable for ages fourteen and up, The Kite Runner is an unforgettable tale about a friendship which spans cultures and continents and follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.
