DUBAI: A musical play adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling novel “The Kite Runner” is coming to the Dubai Opera from Feb. 27 to 29. British director Giles Croft say he is excited to charm the Middle East audience with its rich and emotional story.
“We’ve been rehearsing for this revival for the last four weeks. I feel that the show is in a very good shape,” Croft told Arab News from Aylesbury, in England, where the show first opened on Friday.
“The Kite Runner” is coming to the Dubai Opera from Feb. 27 to 29. (Supplied)
He said the company was looking forward to staging the play in Dubai for the first time, although they had to make some changes “in consideration of some sensitivities.”
“Wherever you play a piece of work, you have to take account of your audience, and make adjustments,” he explained, adding “none of it feels like it’s compromised the show.”
This is the first time the play stages in Dubai. (Supplied)
The story, based on a novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, follows Amir and his traumatic childhood, set against the backdrop of a brewing conflict in Afghanistan.
The stage adaptation first came out in 2009 at the San Jose Repertory Theater in California. The Nottingham Playhouse brought it to the UK in 2013 and it was re-worked in 2020.
The story is based on a novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini. (Supplied)
“Nottingham is one of the centers for arrivals for people migrating, and there’s quite a large Afghan community in Nottingham. We were looking for work that felt it told some of that story,” Croft said, noting the conversations around themes of migration and immigration which he said would also resonate in the region.
Croft hopes the audience in Dubai will be “just as engaged” as the UK audience, owing to the story’s “universal and powerful themes” of friendship, betrayal, and redemption.
The stage adaptation first came out in 2009 at the San Jose Repertory Theater in California. (Supplied)
He said they have treated the material “as honestly as possible” and focused on “how we encourage the audience to understand Amir’s journey — that his journey is one that we can all find an element of in our own lives.”
“The Kite Runner” opens on Feb. 27 at the Dubai Opera.
