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A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Rep, Birmingham/Touring
Khaled Hosseini’s evocative fiction is lost in translation to the stage
At the mercy of the plot: Sujaya Dasgupta, Pal Aron and Amina Zia [Pamela Raith]

KHALED HOSSEINI’S 2007 bestselling novel is a powerful story that follows the fortunes of two indomitable Afghan women over three decades.

Forced together by circumstances, their increasingly dependent relationship, set against the harrowing disintegration of Kabul under Taliban rule, is suffused with the sense of daily Afghan life.

Unfortunately, this production sacrifices most of the texture and sensory elements of the novel for mere narrative. Traditional costumes, cursory dances, recorded Afghan music and patrolling Taliban militia are no replacement for how the book submerges the reader into another world.

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