After being under wraps while they underwent a colossal restoration process, it was amazing to see Theatre Royal Brighton back to its full glory when we got to see the Kite Runner this week. 

With its renewed, beautiful terracotta façade and signage all completed, the Grade II listed building looked resplendent in the evening sunshine, ready to welcome visitors on its opening night of the Kite Runner. The façade is not the only thing to be renovated, inside the stalls have new seats that offer better accessible seating options along with an accessible toilet, ensuring all theatregoers can have an enjoyable experience. In true Theatre Royal Brighton fashion, the first show since the renovations is a West End and Broadway hit, and we couldn’t wait to see how such an emotive book would translate to the stage.

This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s debut novel brings to life the poignancy and intricacies of the relationships between father and son, bonds of friends and brothers, religion and national identity, as it follows Amir’s struggles with his conscience towards the experiences of his half-brother and servant Hassan.  Living in Afghanistan and on two very different sides of wealth and religious hierarchy, Amir and Hassan grow up in the same household where Hassan idolises his friend, (and later we discover sibling) and the two navigate the unpredictable threat of a rapidly changing wider world together until a violent event separates them for good. This instability and threat of the world order is beautifully juxtaposed with the innocent, child-focused activity of kite flying, hence the title.

As the play opens the key protagonist and narrator, Amir is joined on stage by a flock of kites, alongside the cast, and the auditorium is filled with the beat from the ever-stage present tabla player who bears witness to the action unfolding, a percussionist companion to the action. These Indian drums surrounded the audience and welcomed us to join and watch the drama unfold. The vibrancy of colour on stage was equally matched by the intensity of music playing throughout a variety of mediums, from singing bowls with an eery pitch at points of high intensity, to drums and elongated football rattles called Schwirrbogen which replicated the sound of kites flying through the sky.  The rhythm of percussion as a whole weaving in and out of the performance kept the tempo and mirrored the meter of the action.

We follow Amir from San Fransisco and back to Afghanistan, as he relays his childhood and relives a painful past that has haunted him to the present. I found Stuart Vincent, the actor playing Amir, to be an amazing shapeshifter, at once an American man retelling his past and in the next second a 12-year-old boy living in Afghanistan where war would soon rip him from his life of luxury. Vincent is not alone in making this a beautiful piece of theatre, Hassan, played by Yazdan Qafouri is the perfect mix of adoration and regret at his life experiences and where he finds himself in a strict order.  This was a polished cast, a masterclass in live theatre with the ability to shock and entertain all rolled into one. 

The fact that this work is a collaboration between playwright Matthew Spangler and Khaled Hosseini is evident, the text has been treated with the full respect it deserves. The standing ovation as the show closed was a testament to what mastery we had just witnessed on the stage. As a book, the Kite Runner stays with you, the beautiful writing and complex, tragic characters remain long after you have read the final page, and the play is no different, it was acted so well that I know it will be in my mind for a long time. I’m not ashamed to say this play moved me to tears, but after all isn’t that the gift of theatre, to be challenged, moved, and somehow slightly forever changed by what you’ve witnessed?

Kite Runner hits Brighton from the west end for a short run from 11^th – 15^th June so get tickets before it sells out.

Caroline