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The Play Guide for A Thousand Splendid Suns was created by:

Jenna Turk

Artistic Associate

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A Thousand Splendid Suns runs from March 7 to April 1, 2017

For tickets, visit theatrecalgary.com or call (403) 294-7447

Front cover design by Punch & Judy Inc. with photo by Cylla von

Tiedemann and calligraphy by Sughra Hussainy

Table of Contents

THE BASICS

The Company 1

Who’s Who? 3

The Story 4

A Synopsis 4

EXPLORATIONS

An Interview with Novelist Khaled Hosseini and Playwright

Ursula Rani Sarma 6

Terms to Know 10

The Title’s Inspiration 14

A.C.T. 16

CONVERSATIONS

Conversation Starters 17

Inside the World of A Thousand Splendid Suns 18

A celebration of the Female Spirit 22

Movie Night 24

Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library 25

Sources 27

THE BASICS 1

The Company

Max Bell Theatre at Arts Commons March 7 to April 1, 2017

presents the World Premiere production from American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.), San Francisco

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS

Adapted by URSULA RANI SARMA

Based on the novel by KHALED HOSSEINI

Original music written and performed by DAVID COULTER

Directed by CAREY PERLOFF

Set Design KEN MACDONALD

Costume Design LINDA CHO

Lighting Design ROBERT WIERZEL

Sound Design JAKE RODRIGUEZ

Movement Director STEPHEN BUESCHER

Dramaturg MICHAEL PALLER

Casting Director JANET FOSTER, CSA

Cultural Consultant HUMAIRA GHILZAI

Assistant Director KIMBERLY MOHNE HILL

Assistant Lighting Design ANDREW GRIFFIN

Dialect Coach NANCY BENJAMIN

Fight Consultant JONATHAN RIDER

A Thousand Splendid Suns is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.

The development of this play was made possible by the Priscilla and Keith Geeslin New Strands Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fund for New Works. This project is also

supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE BASICS 2

THE CAST (in order of appearance)

Babi BARZIN AKHAVAN Laila NADINE MALOUF Fariba DENMO IBRAHIM Rasheed HAYSAM KADRI Mariam KATE RIGG Abdul Sharif JASON KAPOOR Tariq POMME KOCH Mullah Faizullah BARZIN AKHAVAN Nana DENMO IBRAHIM Jalil JASON KAPOOR Wakil JASON KAPOOR Interrogator BARZIN AKHAVAN Aziza NIKITA TEWANI Doctor DENMO IBRAHIM Zalmai MIKA’IL MAMDANI Zaman BARZIN AKHAVAN Talib HAYSAM KADRI Ensemble JESSE LYNN ANDERSON

LINDA KEE TREVOR MATHESON BEHRAD MOSHTAGH

Stage Manager ELISA GUTHERTZ Assistant Stage Manager JUSTIN BORN

Head of Lighting CATHARINE CRUMB Head of Sound CHRIS JACKO Head Stage Carpenter SCOTT MORRIS Wardrobe & Wig Master RON SIEGMUND Assistant Head Dresser RACHEL MICHELLE SHERIDAN Dressers JULI ELKIW, KATIE KLINGVALL Stage Hands TESS COWIE, ANDREW KERR Chaperone RYAN WESLEY GRAY

Understudies

DENMO IBRAHIM (Mariam), JASON KAPOOR (Rasheed), POMME KOCH (Talib)

Cameras and audio/visual recording devices are not permitted in the theatre. Video and audio recording of this production is strictly prohibited.

A Thousand Splendid Suns has one 20-minute intermission.

All cast (except Messers. Kadri, Born, Mamdani, Matheson, Moshtagh, and Mses. Anderson, Kee)

are members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. Mr. Kadri and Mr. Born are members of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

THE BASICS 3

Who’s Who?

(in order of appearance)

Babi: Laila’s father, in his forties

Laila: 14 years-old at the beginning of the play, daughter to Babi and

Fariba; beautiful

Fariba: Laila’s mother, 40 years-old, broken-hearted

Rasheed: Mariam’s husband, a shoemaker

Mariam: She appears both as a young girl and in her mid-thirties as the

worn out, wife to Rasheed

Abdul Sharif: A man posing as a business man to trick Laila.

Tariq: 17 years-old at the beginning of the play, a family friend of Laila’s

with a prosthetic leg

Mullah Faizullah: A man in his 50’s, Mariam’s teacher

Nana: Mariam’s mother

Jalil: Mariam’s father, a wealthy man

Wakil: A man at the Lahore bus station that Laila asks for help

Interrogator: A man questioning Laila and Mariam

Aziza: Laila’s daughter (her first-born child), appears as a baby, at 9

years-old, and at 12 years-old

Doctor: She delivers Zalmai

Zalmai: Laila’s son, 5 years-old

Zaman: He runs the orphanage/school that Aziza attends

Talib: A member of the Taliban

THE BASICS 4

The Story

Based on the bestselling novel by the author of The Kite Runner, this

hauntingly beautiful story reveals the strength of the human spirit. In

war-torn Afghanistan, two women are brought together by fate and

cruelty. Together they will forge an unlikely friendship that leads to an act

of unbreakable love.

A Synopsis

Set in Afghanistan, A Thousand Splendid Suns follows the journey of young

Laila from 1992 to 1999. Orphaned at fourteen when her parents are killed

by a bomb in Kabul, Laila is taken in by a neighbor, Rasheed, and his wife

Mariam. But Mariam isn’t terribly excited at the prospect of Rasheed

taking on a second wife, especially one so young. Nonetheless, Rasheed

marries Laila. Unfortunately, as time passes Rasheed reveals himself to be

a violent, angry man who takes out his frustrations on the two women.

Laila gives birth to a daughter, Aziza, who is then shunned by Rasheed

(for he wanted a son), and Laila and Mariam begin to care for the girl

together. They try to escape, but are deceived by a stranger at the bus

station and are forced to return home and face the wrath of Rasheed.

Time passes and Laila gives birth again, this time to a son, Zalmai. While

he is cherished by his father, the rest of his family suffers. The Taliban are

in power and living conditions have worsened, so Aziza is sent away to

THE BASICS 5

school under the guise that she is an orphan. A childhood friend, Tariq,

returns to find Laila, and it is revealed that they were in fact lovers: Aziza

is not Rasheed’s child, but Tariq’s. Enraged, Rasheed lashes out at Laila,

and Mariam steps in, but Rasheed is intent on killing Laila. Desperate to

save her, Mariam grabs a shovel and kills him.

Laila and the children flee to start a new life with Tariq while Mariam

remains, sacrificing herself, as she knows someone must pay for Rasheed’s

death. In the end, the bond Laila and Mariam share is an inspiring

example of the power of love.

The set of A Thousand Splendid Suns designed by Ken MacDonald (Photo by Kevin Berne)

“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.”

–Rumi

EXPLORATIONS 6

An Interview with Playwright Ursula Rani Sarma

and Novelist Khaled Hosseini

Ursula Rani Sarma Khaled Hosseini (Photo by Helen Warner) (Photo by Elena Seibert)

Strong women dominate the work of award-winning playwright,

poet, and screenwriter Ursula Rani Sarma. So it is no surprise

that she was drawn to the story of Mariam and Laila, the two

women at the center of A Thousand Splendid Suns. It is Khaled

Hosseini’s second of his three novels, the other two being And

the Mountains Echoed (2013) and The Kite Runner (2003).

Hosseini was inspired to write A Thousand Splendid Suns after

visiting Afghanistan and speaking with the strong women who

live in a country where their rights are often oppressed.

Simon Hodgson and Shannon Stockwell spoke with Sarma and

Hosseini about their experience working on this adaptation.

Why is A Thousand Splendid Suns particularly suited for the stage?

URSULA RANI SARMA: The theatre is one of the best mediums to

explore complex human relationships like the ones at the center of A

EXPLORATIONS 7

Thousand Splendid Suns. Like the novel, it is the relationship between

Mariam and Laila – trapped in a violent home, reaching out to each other

– that forms the spine of the play. The difference is that on the stage, the

characters will take on a three-dimensional existence while an audience

bears witness to their extraordinary journey.

KHALED HOSSEINI: I think there’s a sense of immediacy in theatre,

which simply can’t be created elsewhere. On the right night and at the

right performance and with the right crowd, the room is permeated with

something that’s really tangible – very difficult to describe, but very

powerful. There’s a collective experience that you have with an audience

in the theatre that is difficult to create anywhere else. And by contrast, I

think reading a book is a solitary experience.

A.C.T. students rehearse A Thousand Splendid Suns (Photo by Elspeth Sweatman)

What kind of conversations have you had with each other throughout the process?

URS: I spoke with Khaled early on in the process, as it was important to

hear his hopes for the adaptation and any specific elements that he felt

should be retained. Right from the beginning Khaled was very supportive

and generous and he encouraged me to follow my instincts and do

EXPLORATIONS 8

whatever I felt was right. This was hugely liberating and meant that I had

the freedom to get beneath the skin of the novel and to make the story feel

as though it were my own; something that had to happen for me to

breathe life into these characters.

KH: As an author, if you’re allowing your work to be adapted into

another art form by somebody else, you should divorce yourself from the

idea that anything you said or wrote is going to appear in the other

format. It’s far more interesting to get a peek into somebody else’s

interpretation of your work.

The cast of A Thousand Splendid Suns (A.C.T.) (Photo by Kevin Berne)

What is this play about?

URS: It’s 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.

EXPLORATIONS 9

Why is this story important to tell today?

KH: I think a story like A Thousand Splendid Suns can remind people that

every person under a veil, every refugee walking across plains – every

single one of those people has a universe inside them, a life, an entire

history, and a long, long history of things that they wanted, of hopes that

they had. I think that’s important to understand: You can’t just categorize

people under self-serving umbrellas. These are individual human beings. I

think that’s what any art form, be it theatre or novels or movies, can do;

they can bridge that gap and transport you into the shoes of somebody

else. And through that experience, you begin to view the group in a richer

way.

PLEASE NOTE: This interview has been edited from its original form, The

Universe of the Human Spirit, as it first appeared in American Conservatory

Theater’s performance program for its 2017 production of A Thousand

Splendid Suns.

Haysam Kadri as Rasheed, Kate Rigg as Mariam, and Nadine Malouf as Laila

(Photo by Kevin Berne)

EXPLORATIONS 10

Terms to Know

(in alphabetical order)

The official languages of Afghanistan are Dari and Pashto. Dari,

the Afghan dialect of Farsi or Persian, is the first language of

about half of the population and the second language of many

more. Pashto, the native language of the Pashtun people, is the

first language of around 40% of Afghans and 15% of Pakistanis.

Both Dari and Pashto are part of the Indo-European language

family and are written in Arabic script – but the two languages

are not mutually intelligible. Since Afghanistan is an Islamic

country, speakers of both languages also use Arabic words and

phrases in their daily speech.

Afghani: The official currency of Afghanistan.

Allah’s will: God’s will.

Azan: The Islamic call to prayer.

Babaloo Prayers: Family prayers traditionally spoken by the head of the

household.

Baby Musa: This refers to Prophet Musa (Moses) whose mother is said to

have sent him down the Nile as an infant to save him from danger. The

river carried him to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s’ lands where he was saved.

Biwa: A widow.

Burqa: An enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic

traditions to cover themselves in public.

Caesarian: An alternative method to giving birth vaginally that involves

cutting through the walls of the abdomen and uterus for delivery.

Dehati: A villager from somewhere rural.

EXPLORATIONS 11

Dostum: Refers to Abdul Rashid Dostum who was a general in the

Afghan army during the Soviet War and was an independent warlord and

leader fighting the Taliban. In 2013 he apologized for his role in the civil

war.

Dozd: Thief.

Halwa: Generally considered a dessert, but can either be flour-based

(usually more gelatinous) or nut-butter-based (often crumbly).

Hamshira: Sister; this term may also be used formally when addressing

strangers.

Harami: A derogatory term for someone born out of wedlock; a child

with no father.

Hashish: A recreational drug that is part of the cannabis family.

Afghanistan is the leading producer of it in the world.

Hekmatyar: Refers to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar a politician and warlord

who was the Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1993-1994 and then

again in 1996. He is known to many as the “Butcher of Kabul.”

Herat: The third-largest city in Afghanistan situated in the valley of the

Hari River.

Jan: Dear.

Kabul: The capital of Afghanistan and its largest city, located in the east.

Khala: Aunt.

Khastegar: A suitor.

Kolba: A small shack or hut; a crude shelter.

Koran: The central religious text of Islam which Muslims believe to be a

revelation from God.

EXPLORATIONS 12

Lahore: Located in Pakistan near the border of India, it is the capital of

the province of Punjab.

Malika: Queen.

Massoud: Refers to Abdul Shah Massoud a political and military leader.

He fought the Taliban as the head of the United Islamic Front for the

Salvation of Afghanistan, but was assassinated by a suicide bomber just

days before 9/11.

Mujahideen: Guerrilla military outlets; Muslim-Afghan warriors.

Mullah: An educated Muslim trained in religious law and doctrine.

Namaz Prayers: Prayers of Islam performed 5 times daily.

Noor: A nickname meaning “light.”

Pashtun: The largest ethnic group in Afghanistan.

Peshawar: Located in Pakistan near the border of Afghanistan, it is the

capital of the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Pir Penjal: A mountain range in the Inner Himalayan region.

Rabbani: Refers to Burhanuddin Rabbani who was the President of the

Islamic State of Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 and fought against the

Taliban. He was killed in his home by a suicide bomber in 2011.

Sabzi: An Iranian herb stew.

Soviets: Members of the Soviet Union’s army who invaded Afghanistan

and assumed communist control from 1979-1989.

Tajik: Refers to people from Tajikistan, but Rasheed uses it pejoratively,

as an insult. He insinuates Laila is privileged, as the Tajiks are known to

be settled land owners.

Volga & Benz: The Volga is a brand of automobile that originated in the

Soviet Union. It represents communism and functionality; they were often

EXPLORATIONS 13

used as taxi cabs. The Benz refers to the automobile manufacturer

Mercedes-Benz whose products are globally known as symbols of style

and luxury.

Watan: Land or country.

Zahmat: Trouble.

Theatre Calgary’s poster image for A Thousand Splendid Suns (Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann; Art Direction and Graphic Design by Punch & Judy Inc.)

EXPLORATIONS 14

The Title’s Inspiration

The title of Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns,

comes from a poem called Kabul by Saib-e-Tabrizi, a 17th century

Persian poet. It could be considered the book and the play’s

epigram. The following English translation is by Dr. Josephine

Davis

Kabul

Ah! How beautiful is Kabul encircled by her arid mountains

And Rose, of the trails of thorns she envies

Her gusts of powdered soil, slightly sting my eyes

But I love her, for knowing and loving are born of this same dust

My song exalts her dazzling tulips

And at the beauty of her trees, I blush

How sparkling the water flows from Pul-I-Mastaan!

May Allah protect such beauty from the evil eye of man!

Khizr chose the path to Kabul in order to reach Paradise

For her mountains brought him close to the delights of heaven

From the fort with sprawling walls, A Dragon of protection

Each stone is there more precious than the treasure of Shayagan

Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye

Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs

And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls

Her laughter of mornings has the gaiety of flowers

Her nights of darkness, the reflections of lustrous hair

Her melodious nightingales, with passion sing their songs

Ardent tunes, as leaves enflamed, cascading from their throats

And I, I sing in the gardens of Jahanara, of Sharbara

And even the trumpets of heaven envy their green pastures

EXPLORATIONS 15

Our poster for the production features four lines from Kabul in

calligraphy – the same four lines that are recited by Laila’s father

in the play:

"Every street of Kabul is enthralling to the eye

Through the bazaars, caravans of Egypt pass

One could not count the moons that shimmer on her roofs

And the thousand splendid suns that hide behind her walls"

The poster’s creator Scott McKowen (of Punch and Judy Inc.)

wanted to use the text, but needed someone who was skilled in

in nastaliq – the most prevalent calligraphy style in Afghanistan

– to do it properly. An Arabic calligrapher in Washington

suggested Sughra Hussainy, an Afghan artist, to do the work.

Without a shared language, Scott and Sughra communicated via

a translator (who insisted on giving his commission to Sughra)

scanning the images back and forth. It was a true collaboration

and Theatre Calgary couldn’t be happier with the end result!

Sughra Hussainy working on the calligraphy for the poster illustration

(Photos by Josh Berer)

EXPLORATIONS 16

A.C.T.

American Conservatory Theatre (A.C.T.) is a

Tony Award-winning non-profit theatre

based in downtown San Francisco where they

operate two theatres, the Geary Theatre (a

grand historic stage with 1,025 seats) and

the Strand Theatre (a brand new state of the

art space with 283 seats), as well as run a

three-year conservatory Master of Fine Arts

Program with over 3,000 students.

A.C.T. opened its doors in 1967 and for the last 24 seasons has

been under the leadership of Artistic Director Carey Perloff (and

director of A Thousand Splendid Suns). A.C.T. is known for fresh

productions of classical

works and new translations

of contemporary stories.

They also have an affinity for

producing cross-disciplinary

performances and celebrate

international collaborations.

Theatre Calgary first worked with A.C.T. in 2011 with Tosca Cafe

and again in 2014 with George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara. A

Thousand Splendid Suns marks our third collaboration in what

has been a fruitful creative partnership.

The cast of A Thousand Splendid Suns (A.C.T.)

(Photo by Kevin Berne)

CONVERSATIONS 17

Conversation Starters

What do you think brought Laila and Mariam together?

What does friendship mean to you?

Have you read Khaled Hosseini’s novel of the same name?

How did the play differ? What changes were necessary to adapt it for

the stage?

Which character did you identify with and why?

Which character could you least identify with and why not?

Was Rasheed a “bad” man? How did his circumstances affect his

behaviour?

Was it difficult for you to watch this play? Why or why not?

Are you playing a part in the fight for equal rights?

Is there anything you can do to help women and children who are so

far away from you?

Do you think this story is an important one to tell? For what reasons?

Why do you think Khaled Hosseini chose the title, A Thousand Splendid

Suns?

“Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure.”

–Rumi

CONVERSATIONS 18

Inside the World of A Thousand Splendid Suns

By Elspeth Sweatman

The characters of Mariam, Laila, and Rasheed may have begun their

fictional journey in the mind of author Khaled Hosseini, but their

personalities are rooted firmly in their native Afghanistan. Approximately

the size of Texas, Afghanistan is a land of extreme beauty and extreme

geographic diversity, ranging from towering mountains to expansive

plains to barren deserts. Winters there are harsh, and summers sweltering.

In this dramatic landscape live 32.5 million Afghans, a mixture of

religions, languages, and ethnicities.

Map of Afghanistan

(Infographics via A.C.T. San Francisco)

Kabul’s location on the Silk Road between Europe and the riches of the

East, combined with the country’s abundance of natural resources, has

made Afghanistan an enticing prospect for many foreign invaders:

CONVERSATIONS 19

Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Great Britain, and, most recently, the

Soviet Union. In 1979, the Soviets sent troops into Afghanistan to prop up

a failing socialist government, but they were ill-prepared for the ferocious

response of the Afghan people. When the Soviet troops withdrew in 1989,

Afghans were hopeful that life would return to normal.

Sher Darwaza, Kabul, Afghanistan (Photo by Christopher Killalea)

However, many of the militant groups that had fought the Soviets –

known as the Mujahideen – turned against each other. The nation

descended into civil war. One group shelled Kabul from the surrounding

hills, while others fought for control of neighborhoods. The Afghan Civil

War (1989–96) took the lives of 25,000 civilians. It is during this dangerous

period that Ursula Rani Sarma’s adaptation of A Thousand Splendid Suns

begins.

Into this bloodshed burst a new group that looked like the answer to

many Afghans’ prayers for peace: the Taliban. Spreading from the refugee

camps in Pakistan in the early 1990s, the Taliban took control of most of

CONVERSATIONS 20

Afghanistan by 1996. Many Afghans welcomed it with open arms, seeing

in its fierce religious beliefs a solution to the violence that had plagued the

country for almost two decades.

Haysam Kadri as Rasheed, Nadine Malouf as Laila, and Kate Rigg as Mariam

(Photo by Kevin Berne)

The people’s celebrations were short-lived. The Taliban believed that

impurity and vice were the root cause of the country’s problems. Through

its Department for the Preservation of Virtue and the Elimination of Vice,

the Taliban issued edict after edict banning anything that might entice

people to sin. Women were forbidden from working, attending school,

and leaving their homes without a male relative to escort them. Even a

glimpse of an arm or an ankle could incur brutal punishment. In sports

arenas and city squares throughout the country, the Taliban beat

offenders, amputated their limbs, and sometimes stoned them to death.

This is the political and social world that Mariam and Laila must navigate

in A Thousand Splendid Suns.

CONVERSATIONS 21

Since the Taliban were driven out of power in 2001, life in Afghanistan has

become slightly more stable. Under the new constitution written in 2004,

women are granted equal rights. But Afghanistan remains a country

under siege. Foreign militant groups such as Islamic State (ISIS) have

increased their influence in the nation, launching their own attacks and

adding to the body count. The Taliban remains a significant threat in

many areas. According to the Pentagon, the Afghan government only

controls 258 of the country’s 407 districts.

The Afghan people remain hardworking, resilient, and hopeful. Like Laila

and Mariam, many are working toward a brighter future and a time when

this Central Asian country will be known more for its beauty than its

violent past.

PLEASE NOTE: This article has been edited from its original form, Shifting

Sands, as it first appeared in American Conservatory Theater’s

performance program for its 2017 production of A Thousand Splendid Suns.

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her

shackles are very different from my own.”

–Audre Lorde

CONVERSATIONS 22

A Celebration of the Female Spirit

The two central women in A Thousand Splendid Suns share a bond despite

their vastly different upbringings: Young, pretty Laila was raised by

loving and well-educated parents in

progressive Kabul, whereas Mariam grew up

in a kolba (a shack) in rural Afghanistan

having been abandoned by her father and

orphaned by her mother left only to marry the

first man who came along, Rasheed (played by

Calgary’s own Haysam Kadri). When Rasheed

marries them both, the women are at odds;

however, the birth of a child, a daughter

named Aziza, unites them.

While attending a performance of A Thousand Splendid Suns at Theatre

Calgary, audiences will also be able to take in the histories of over twenty

Calgarian women’s stories of survival. Pre-show and during intermission,

lobby displays will illuminate their journeys. In partnership with various

community groups (including the Canadian Cultural Mosaic Foundation,

the Alberta Network of Immigrant Women, and the Afghan Canadian

Association of Calgary, to name but a few), Theatre Calgary hopes to

celebrate the strong women in our community in conjunction with

recognizing women around the world in time for International Women’s

Day on March 8th.

CONVERSATIONS 23

Not only will the Max Bell Theatre lobby be filled with fascinating local

women’s stories, but it will be adorned with artwork by Afghan women

for purchase, supplied by the Canadian Women for Women in

Afghanistan, a locally founded, national non-profit dedicated to women’s

rights in Afghanistan. All funds raised will go directly to the artists

themselves and representatives from the organization will be on hand to

tell us how we can help further.

Furthermore, after the show on March 8th stay for a special International

Women’s Day event where Syrian refugee and Calgarian entrepreneur

Rita Khanchet will share her own story and engage the audience in

conversation.

A Thousand Splendid Suns’ message of hope and female empowerment has

already resonated with our neighbours south of the border in San

Francisco where it opened to rave reviews this February, and with over

3,000 people showing up for the Calgary Women’s March this past

January, hopefully it will resonate with local audiences too.

CONVERSATIONS 24

Movie Night

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a story of remarkable resilience and the female

bond. Set in war-torn Afghanistan, based on the bestselling novel by

Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a brand-new theatrical

adaptation that is rich in its inspiration. Explore its themes with these

notable films:

Beneath the Veil A 2001 episode of Dispatches, a British TV current

affairs documentary series, which exposes the inhuman judicial practices

of the Taliban through the story of one woman’s trial. It won a Royal

Television Society Television Journalism Award for Programme of the

Year in 2001.

Kandahar A partly fictional and partly true 2001 Iranian film that follows

an Afghan-Canadian woman’s journey as she returns to Afghanistan after

hearing that her oldest friend plans to take her own life.

Osama The first film to be shot entirely in Afghanistan since 1996 when

the Taliban banned the creation of all new films; this 2003 film tells the

story of an adolescent girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to

support her family in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

The Kite Runner A 2007 drama based on Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling

novel of the same name. Set largely in Kabul, this story focusses on male

friendship and follows a pair of boys divided by class as they grow up in

violent Afghanistan.

He Named Me Malala A 2015 documentary about Pakistani female

activist and Nobel Prize winner, MalalaYousafzai, and her recovery from

an assassination-attempt by the Taliban on her life due to her fervent

support of girls’ rights to education.

CONVERSATIONS 25

Recommended Reads from Calgary Public Library By Rosemary Griebel

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Fiction. 2003. From the author of A Thousand Splendid Suns, this

remarkable debut novel presents a glimpse of life in Afghanistan

before the Russian invasion. Read the unforgettable story of an

Afghan writer returning to a ravaged homeland to confront a

childhood betrayal and find redemption as an adult.

The Lovers: Afghanistan's Romeo and Juliet: the True Story of How They Defied Their Families and Escaped An Honor Killing by Rod Norland

Nonfiction. 2016. Zakia and Ali, who are from rival sects, marry

without parental permission and now live in fear for their lives.

This story by the New York Times’ Kabul bureau chief, spotlights

issues of women’s rights violations, journalistic ethics, and

religious extremism in war-torn Afghanistan.

My Name is Parvana by Deborah Ellis

Fiction. 2012. In this sequel to the Breadwinner Trilogy, Parvana is

now a teenage girl living in post-Taliban Afghanistan struggling to

deal with the past, American soldiers who view her as a bombing

suspect, and local men who violently oppose education for girls. A

powerful story depicting the challenges facing Afghan women by

an award-winning Canadian author.

Click on the book covers to check availability

at the Calgary Public Library!

CONVERSATIONS 26

The Pearl That Broke Its Shell: [A Novel] by Nadia Hashimi

Fiction. 2014. The lives of two Afghan women, separated by a

century yet achingly similar, are interwoven in this debut novel.

Both women struggle for freedom in a deeply patriarchal society

where ancient customs dictate a woman’s fate.

The Taliban Cricket Club by Timeri Murari

Fiction. 2012. Murari provides a unique approach to the subject of

Taliban repression in this novel. A young undercover journalist

and accomplished cricket player hopes to help her Afghan family

gain their freedom by winning a Taliban-sanctioned cricket

tournament that would allow them to travel outside of the country.

Amidst the terror and despair wrought by war, there is also hope

and humour.

The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad

Fiction. 2011. The author, a long-retired Pakistani civil servant,

skillfully navigates the harsh landscape and tribal life of the FATA

(Federally Administered Tribal Lands) through the eyes of the

elusive Tor Baz. This remote border region between Afghanistan,

Iraq, and Pakistan is home to tribal nomads whose ancient cultures

and fractious existence is influenced by external political forces. A

riveting depiction of a complex part of the world.

Click on the book covers to check availability

at the Calgary Public Library!

CONVERSATIONS 27

Sources

Adams, Simon. Afghanistan. Minnesota: Smart Apple Media, 2008.

“A.C.T. A Thousand Splendid Suns Program”

http://www.act-sf.org/content/dam/act/2016-

17_Season/A%20Thousand%20Splendid%20Suns/A%20Thousand%20Sple

ndid%20Suns%20program%20final%20(2017).pdf

“Farsi Dictionary”

http://atssproject.weebly.com/farsi-words.html

Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns. Toronto: Viking Canada,

2007.

“Kabul”

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8541977-Kabul-by-Mirza-Muhammed-Ali-

Saib

Rasanayagam, Angelo. Afghanistan: A Modern History. New York: I.B.

Tauris & Co. Ltd: 2003.

Wattling, Shari. “Theatre Calgary’s The Kite Runner Enrichment Guide.”