[ back ]
'Kite Runner' doesn't fly so high
(by Herb Hammer - October 27, 2010)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
'Kite Runner' doesn't fly so high
It was 2007, and Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel "The Kite Runner" was adapted into the surprise hit movie of the year. The simple telling of kite-flying children in 1970s Afghanistan and its surprising and chilling complex story left movie audiences spellbound.
Matthew Spangler has adapted Mr. Hosseini's gut-wrenching novel to the stage, and, along with the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Cleveland Play House has presented us with a moving drama.
Not without its many flaws, the stage version tells the story of young Amir and his friend, the shy Hassin. Though Hassin and his father are merely servants for Amir and his family, the boys are inseparable until one horrific day that changes their lives forever.
In telling the far-reaching story, Mr. Spangler uses the now grown-up Amir as a narrator running along with his childhood self dramatically explaining the fast-moving plot. The story of betrayal and crushing guilt and, finally in Act 2, the redemption that will touch your heart, sends you home gratified.
With over a dozen actors all playing numerous roles, Mr. Spangler makes an effort to copy each detail of the movie version, taking 2 1/2 hours to complete his work. Here's where the play is most troubling. Keeping a theater audience seated for this long while wasting much of the unimportant middle of the plot nearly kills off the entire play.
By the end, nearly 30 years have gone by, and the narrator Amir and his father have escaped Afghanistan and have made a life for themselves in California.
Amir is now a successful novelist and is finally married after an unnecessarily long courtship. This is another attempt to follow this film version.
Amir is drawn back to Afghanistan during the crushing control of the Taliban to find redemption in his years of guilt. His betrayal of his friend has never released its grip.
The stage is covered by artistic sliding screens and little else. The action, which moves constantly from place to place, allows for little else. Though quite effective, you can only wish there were more going on behind the action.
The kite-flying scenes are a difficult task for director Mark Masterson. You can only sympathize with his effort, for he is unable to pull it off.
The play belongs to Jos Viramontes, as the narrator and the grown-up Amir. He is in every scene moving the action along. His role constantly changes as he guides us through the heavily plot-driven play. He couldn't have been better.
The rest are all quite good. The scene at Taliban headquarters in Act 2 is awkwardly put together. Another clumsy scene is when Amir and his father arrive in California. Here the director makes Californians all young and somewhat crazy.
Mr. Spangler's stage adaptation was first presented by the San Jose Repertory Theater last year before moving to Louisville and now to Cleveland. The enormous chore of lifting the novel then the film to the stage is compelling. On the other hand, it works only part of the time. Those who were enchanted by the movie, as I was, will surely be a bit disappointed.
[ back ]
