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CurtainUp The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features,
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A CurtainUp DC Review
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Two women -- Mariam (Hend Ayoub) and Laila (Mirian Katrib) are married to the same man, Rasheed, (Haysam Kadri, in a very strong performance) a brutal misogynist, like most men in Afghanistan at the time (and probably to this day). Backward-thinking does not begin to explain this egregious savage. In fact there is only one man in this story who has any redeeming qualities, that's Tariq (Antoine Yared), the boy-next-door and Laila's only true love. (Arena Stage is to be commended for its multi-culti casting.) "What a man does in his home is his business," says Rasheed who rapes his wife, slaps her around with a strap and forbids her to leave. When Mariam and Laila try to leave Kabul for Peshawar, the money they had for train tickets is taken away from them, unlawfully. Actually, lawlessness and corruption define life in Afghanistan. What follows is a succession of horrific events: Laila and Mariam try to leave Kabul, where their neighborhood has been shelled. Tariq, we are told, died in the conflagration -- except he does pop up later in one of the play's needs for the suspension of disbelief. The other being, at the end of the second act, Mariam's decision not to leave for Pakistan with Laila, Tarique and the children she loves. That's not all: like nearly every other man in Afghanistan, Rasheed will not let either of his wives or his daughter be educated. Out of fear they hide their books. "Women are always wrong," one of the men declares. Laila suffers a miscarriage and, much later, gives birth by Caesarian Section in a filthy and ill-equipped hospital lacking in such basics as anesthesia and antibiotics. Next up: the arrival of the Taliban, more beating of women, a mother who commits suicide, and people stealing because they are hungry. The purpose of references to the movie Titanic are, I suppose, meant to provide comic relief. But that too fails because it isn't funny. For all its grand guignol A Thousand Splendid Suns is emotionally unaffecting, possibly because of its tedious litany of wrongs. The take-aways though are clear: why has the United States spent nearly two futile decades supplying military and financial aid to such a God-forsaken country and why would anyone think that turning this novel into a theater piece was a good idea? |
PRODUCTION NOTES A Thousand Splendid Suns by Ursula Rani Sarma Based on the book by Khaled Hosseini Directed by Carey Perloff Choreographed by Stephen Buescher Cast: Hend Ayoub (Mariam); Sarah Corey (Ensemble); Lanna Joffrey (Fariba/Nana); Haysam Kadri (Rasheed/Fight Captain); Joseph Kamal (Babi/Zamam/Interrogator); Jason Kapoor (Wakil); Mirian Katrib (Laila); Ravi Mampara (Zalmai); Justin Xavier Poydras (Zalmai); Yousof Sultani (Ensemble); Nikita Tewani (Aziza); Antoine Yared (Tariq/Driver). Costume Design by Linda Cho Set Design by Ken MacDonald Lighting Design by Robert Wierzel Sound Design by Jake Rodriguez Running time: 2 hours 35 minutes with one 15-minute intermission. Arena Stage, areanstage.org. Performances January 17 to March 1, 2020. Reviewed by Susan Davidson at January 23, 2020 performance. REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
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