The Kite Runner

Review of The Kite Runner on Broadway

The opportunity to see The Kite Runner literally fell into my lap. I don’t want to go into detail because of privacy concerns, but I caught a Wednesday matinee of Kite Runner for free essentially. A nice orchestra seat, too. I had a blast with that fact and in exchange I only had to do some work before the show and had the chance to leave the stage door, thus making people think I’m a part of the show. It was a very cool experience, as I volunteered ushered.

Anyways, I wanted to see the show out of curiosity. I’m Iranian and the fact there was an almost entirely brown cast, mainly Afghan and Iranian, was coming to Broadway and that was just so exciting. But then I saw the ticket prices, which is why had to iron out some details to see this.

I have complicated feelings about the book, since it is problematic, but I see this show and the book as steps towards allowing voices from this part of the world to come into the spotlight. My complicated feelings towards the book translated into the play—I’m going to establish that immediately.

Onwards!

A story of one young man’s upbringing in Afghanistan and then the United States.

The Kite Runner is a book and if you’re here, I assume you kind of already know the plot already. If not, the basics are that Amir, the protagonist, is the son of a wealthy merchant in Kabul and he was best friends with his father’s servant’s son. Amir is a complicated character because he screws over the servant’s son, who ultimately gets raped because of this with no form of justice, and he ditches the kid.

When the war breaks out, Amir and his father leave for the United States, which is a difficult journey, Baba gets cancer and grants Amir the opportunity to marry a girl he loves, but then he is called back to Afghanistan in search of his childhood friend.

There are some brilliant elements of culture incorporated into the show, which I admired greatly. There are lines completely in Farsi that aren’t translated, which adds a layer of authenticity that works well for the content it’s using.

A tabla player enters five minutes before the show starts and begins playing, and, as someone who was ushering, we were told not to stand in front of him because it’s very rude in Afghan culture. So we had to move before we held up the signs to silence your cellphones in order to avoid being rude—I enjoyed that touch even with the house staff. Not only are kites incorporated throughout, but also traditional objects, references, and attire.

One of my biggest problems with Kite Runner as a book is that it is trauma porn. I think when you adapt a book like that for Broadway, making it a hallmark of the culture of a whole, there’s a certain connotation. '

Most people who can afford to attend Broadway are wealthy white people, and while it is more critical than ever to have Afghan voices on the stage, only incorporating Afghan tragedy and sadness instead of joy for a wealthy elite can be shocking, but also voyeuristic. Why do we have to be seen only in tragedy? I want to be able to see Southwest Asian joy on the stage for once. This a loaded play with cancer, suicide, refugee crisis, murder, and a marriage falling apart. That’s cramming a lot in right there.

However, the biggest problem with the stage adaptation was how the story unfolded. The entire show is essentially told in monologues from Amir’s point of view. Most of these monologues were very novelistic in nature, describing the environments around them in deep detail and adding exposition.

They cut in-between scenes where things are actually shown on the stage, but, by the end, it feels like it’s dragging because Amir just keeps going on and on. The acting was incredible. It was very, very good. I think they can only do the best they can with a lackluster script though. The minimalistic stage design plays in the show’s favor.

I think there’s a distinct difference between the theatrical piece being moving and it actually being good. Is Kite Runner effective at making people cry and empathize with the characters? Yes. People around me were sobbing. But should I have been a theatre piece? I don’t think it’s actually good when it comes to be a theatrical piece. It feels rough and like it needs more work on the dialogue, especially those monologues. The live music was a really nice touch, I will say, with the tabla percussionist almost always on the stage and working to provide a particular kind of ambiance.

This isn’t the production’s fault, but people really need to turn off their cellphones. This experience was almost completely ruined because cellphones kept going off the entire show.

A life alert button went off one time because someone dropped it, but, besides that, cellphones went off a whopping total of four times and would ring for up to a minute because people didn’t realize their phone was ringing. At one point, the actor playing Amir broke character in the middle of a critical monologue and said “And our phones just keep ringing, don’t they,” drawing a standing ovation from a few.

Overall Thoughts

I don’t think it’s worth the high prices at the Hayes Theatre, but I would have paid in order to support actors from a similar culture as mine. It’s really hard to make it in our industry as Southwest Asian individuals and most of the cast are having their Broadway debuts in Kite Runner.

I wanted to support them and I felt like they did an excellent job, but the source material is just so murky. I see why people love it, but I find it complicated to reduce Afghanistan to tragedy, especially since if you’re paying attention, life in America is depicted as so much better.

And I can understand that considering Afghanistan’s situation, but the stage production glosses over how difficult life in the US as a brown person is. The male on male rape and the main character’s reaction, too, might be found problematic by some because I think people could interpret it as internalized homophobic feelings.

My verdict: see it to support excellent acting and a diverse addition to Broadway.