Giving a voice to the unheard and overshadowed

The stage version of Khalistan Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner has proved one of theatre’s most successful touring productions in recent years. Now the author’s ‘spiritual sequel’ comes to Leeds Playhouse in Ursula Rani Sharma’s play A Thousand Splendid Suns from 28 May to 14 June.

Roxana Silbert, who directed the European premiere of the play in Birmingham in 2019, returns to helm this latest production which she feels is as relevant as ever today. “This is a new production in response to the evolving challenges women face in Afghanistan – and sadly even more urgent and necessary today than it was six years ago,” she says.

Khaled Hosseini’s international best-selling novel is the powerful story of three generations of women discovering strength in unity and finding hope in the unlikeliest of places. Set in 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war, an orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world. Her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home and takes Laila as his second wife.

Rasheed’s first wife Mariam has no choice but to accept her younger, and now pregnant, rival. As the Taliban take over, life for all of them becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, and the two women find themselves unlikely allies.

Playwright Ursula Rani Sarma says: “This play is about the immense strength and endurance of women and how they can survive tremendous suffering to keep those they love alive. It is also about how even in the darkest of times and places, love can grow and sustain the human spirit beyond all pain and hardship. It’s about friendship and loyalty, courage and selflessness, grief and violence.

“What the play has to say about love, endurance and survival is very much worth listening to for a contemporary audience. There is beauty and strength at the heart of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I feel so proud to be part of its evolution from novel to stage.’"

Silbert, who has long been drawn to stories that give a voice to the unheard and overshadowed, believes the narrative holds profound relevance today within Afghanistan and more broadly. “It's the most beautifully written book. And I loved that it was two women at the centre of it,” she says.

“I just feel like the story of women in Afghanistan does not get the focus it deserves. Given what's going on now, it feels like it's under the radar. And so, it feels like a really important story to tell.”

At the heart of the story are two women, Mariam and Laila, who brought together by unexpected and challenging circumstances and united by resilience and solidarity. Their journey spans decades and captures the personal cost of war, oppression, patriarchy, and survival.

Roxana explains: “We go from 1989 to 2001; it's quite a range of time in the play. And so it tells the history of Afghanistan, but it tells it through personal relationships between these two women and with their common husband. There’s a very beautiful relationship between these two women at the heart of it. They are co-wives, but it's also a mother-daughter relationship and a friendship. And there's so much love. These women are so extraordinary.”

Audiences really get to know and to love the people at the heart of the play, Roxana continues. “Even Rasheed, the husband, who might not be forgiven for what he does, but who you come to understand as the story unfolds.

“It's an incredibly compassionate book and play about what happens in a family, which is like a metaphor for what's happening in the wider cultural context. I find that the relationship between the political and the personal is very moving; those things are very connected.”

There has been a lot of Afghan input into the production through the creative team and casting, making it feel even more connected and embedded in the current situation in Afghanistan. “There is a lot of humour in it because the people in it are funny, but also, the way people often deal with crisis is through humour, so that still exists in the play, but it’s also got a much darker edge,” she adds.

The play also highlights how Islam can be understood and expressed in diverse ways, challenging one-dimensional views of faith and its expression. “Because of the period in which it is set, faith comes in many colours. Everyone is Muslim, but the way they interpret the faith is very different depending on which character's eyes you see it through. It examines faith through 360 degrees,” she says.

The play's final scene unfolds in 2001, 24 years ago. Yet its themes and messages still resonate. When asked what she hopes Afghan women and wider audiences will take from the play, Silbert expresses a desire for Afghan women to feel heard and for broader audiences to gain awareness of Afghanistan's past and present realities.

“I hope they feel their voices are being heard and that the stories of their mothers and grandmothers are being validated. We want to shine a spotlight on Afghanistan in a way that makes people curious to explore further and find out what’s happening now,” she says.

“This is an incredibly emotive play; it really touches people, and with any pieces of theatre, you want to move people, transform them. You want to give them a way of empathising with people they might not have thought of empathising with.”

A Thousand Splendid Suns is at Leeds Playhouse from 28 May to 14 June.
Box office 0113 213 7700 / info@leedsplayhouse.org.uk