I should know better by now. My last 2 visits to plays were disappointing. But at least 3 people had told me, independently, that this was an excellent production and should not be missed if it came back to Nottingham. Not so.
You can't criticise any of the actors, designers or production staff. Ben Turner, in particular, was on stage the whole time and played the part very well. And the on-stage sitar player certainly added to the atmosphere. (They have a sitar tradition in Afganistan?)
The basic problem is the story. Which I didn't particularly like when I read the book several years ago. (In my opinion Hosseini's 'A Thousand Splendid Suns', although an order of magnitude bleaker, was a far superior book.) It is basically a standard betrayal-atonement tale spread over perhaps 30 years of the narrator's life, and not a very interesting one.
The last 10 minutes of the play degenerated into something akin to a pantomime or farce.
Bad news: Hassan was murdered by the Taliban!
Good news: Hassan's son Sohrab is alive!
Bad news: Amir is too scared to go to Kabul to get Sohrab!
Good news: He's changed his mind!
Bad news: Sohrab has been given by the orphanage to a Taliban gang leader!
Good news: Amir knows where the gangster lives and is going round there!
Bad news: It's Assef, bully who used to terrorise Amir and Hassan as youngsters!
Good news: Sohrab blinds Assef with his catapult and they get away! Sohrab can go live with Amir!
Bad news: Amir can't take Sohrab back to America; he has to go home and apply for adoption from there!
Good news: The paperwork comes through!
Bad news: Sohrab is now an elective mute!
etc etc etc
I don't think I'll be bothering with any more plays.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments welcome - please identify yourself!