Shakespeare in Kabul

by Stephen Landrigan, Qais Akbar Omar

Overview

In 2005, a group of actors in Kabul performed Shakespeare's Love’s Labour's Lost to the cheers of Afghan audiences and the raves of foreign journalists. For the first time in years, men and women had appeared onstage together. The future held no limits, the actors believed. In this fast-moving, fondly told and frequently very funny account, Qais Akbar Omar and Stephen Landrigan capture the triumphs and foibles of the actors as they extend their Afghan passion for poetry to Shakespeare's.Both authors were part of the production. Qais, a journalist, served as Assistant Director and interpreter for Paris actress, Corinne Jaber, who had come to Afghanistan on holiday and returned to direct the play. Stephen, himself a playwright, assembled a team of Afghan translators to fashion a script in Dari as poetic as Shakespeare's. This chronicle of optimism plays out against the heartbreak of knowing that things in Afghanistan have not turned out the way the actors expected.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781907822483
Publisher:	Haus Publishing
Publication date:	04/01/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	220
File size:	406 KB

About the Author

Qais Akbar Omar lives in Boston and is the author of A Fort of Nine Towers (FSG, 2013). Stephen Landrigan is a playwright, he lives in Boston and returns to Kabul often.

Table of Contents

Exposition Stephen Landrigan

1 Prologue: Kabul. March, 2005 3

2 A Cry of Players: Kabul. March, 2005 14

3 Selection a Play: Paris. April, 2005 22

4 Finding Funds 31

5 Making the Script: Kabul. May and June, 2005 34

Climax Qais Akbar Omar

6 Casting: the Boys: Kabul. May, 2005 47

7 Casting: the Girls: Kabul. May, 2005 59

8 Casting: searching for Marina: Kabul. June, 2005 72

9 Rehearsals, Act One: Kabul. June, 2005 79

10 Rehearsals, Act Two: Kabul. July, 2005 85

11 Tea with Shakespeare: Kabul. June and July, 2005 94

12 Meaning of Love: Kabul. June, 2005 107

13 Behind the Scenes: Kabul. June, 2005 114

14 "This Theatre of Heaven": Kabul. August, 2005 122

15 Rehearsals, Act Three: Kabul. August, 2005 130

16 Exists and Entrances: Kabul. August, 2005 138

17 Expulsion of the Russians: Kabul. August, 2005 147

Resolution Qais Akbar Omar Stephen Landrigan

18 Performance: Kabul. August 31, 2005 155

19 The Queen's Palace: Kabul. September 4, 2005 167

20 The Light Garden of the Angel King: Kabul September 4, 2005 175

21 Applause: Kabul. September 8, 2005 184

22 Encores: Kabul. September 2005-April 2006 189

23 Mazar-e-Sharif: Mazar-e-Sharif. May, 2006 201

24 Herat: Herat. May, 2006 210

25 Curtain: Kabul. December, 2009 226

Authors' Note 230