We find ourselves at a time in theatre when it is all too often the case that it is the lightweight and inconsequential that fills a theatre while serious drama fails to find an audience. What a delight, therefore, to join a full house at Richmond Theatre for the opening of the UK tour of The Kite Runner. The production, first seen in 2016 and based on Khaled Hosseini’s 2003 bestselling novel, will be touring the UK and should not be missed.

Matthew Spangler’s sensitive adaptation of the novel provides a clear narrative arc, focuses on key distinctive characters and manages to portray the bleakest and most harrowing episodes in all seriousness but without being unnecessarily explicit. This is a hallmark of Giles Croft’s production too, with the most violent incidents happening behind a screen or playing out in shadow form. Those screens, which descend to form new locations or to enable images to be projected, form part of Barney George’s definitive setting for the play, with the screen at the back of the stage serving as a fence or becoming a cityscape in California.

The play focuses on the story of Amir, growing up in a privileged Pashtun family in Kabul, before theRussian invasion of Afghanistan. His playmate is Hassan, a Hazara boy who is also a servant in his house. These idyllic scenes come to an end when local bully Assef turns up. What follows, and in particular Amir’s failure to intervene, provides the storyline for the rest of the play, which manages to encompass Russian and Taliban control of Afghanistan as well as interludes in California. It’s a complex and inventive story but one which is made totally clear in the production, with the rapt audience watching in silence as events began to build towards what seems to be an inevitable end. As central figure Amir, Stuart Vincent is the only character to address the audience directly, and we accept this totally due to his engaging and truthful performance. Opposite him in the early scenes is Yazdan Qafouri as Hassan (and later as Hassan’s son), giving a deeply thoughtful and carefully judged portrayal of this tragic character. Completing the central trio in the early stages is Bhavin Bhatt, returning to the role of Assef. He manages to portray all the incipient sadism and internal violence of the character without also losing sight of his inevitable vulnerability. In an exemplary cast it seems invidious to single out individuals however, and The Kite Runner is an excellent example of ensemble acting of the highest order, including the playing of child roles truthfully and with no hint of the kind of overacting that sometimes accompanies such sequences. Most of the cast play multiple roles, and do so with cultural sensitivity and avoidance of stereotypes.

The current UK tour goes to eighteen venues between now and July, and the production is also embarking on a lengthy tour in the United States this year. Deeply moving and a feast of fine acting, The Kite Runner is an unmissable theatrical event.

5*