The Kite Runner heads to Birmingham REP

The performances follow an outstanding West End for the show, which is based on Khaled Hosseini’s international bestselling novel.

Audiences can look forward to a haunting tale of friendship which spans cultures and continents and follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption.

The action centres on Afghanistan, a divided country on the verge of war and in which two childhood friends are about to be torn apart.

The scene is set on a beautiful afternoon in Kabul when the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither Hassan nor Amir can foresee the terrible incident which will shatter their lives forever.

The production features an impressive cast, including Ravi Aujla, Jo Ben Ayed, Raj Ghatak, Amiera Darwish and Rez Kabir.

Rez plays Mary in the story of youth, transgression and redemption.

She believes audiences will go away having learned much.

“Younger audiences will take something from it, an older generation will pick up on something else, but the great appeal of this play is the beautiful moments of joy and humour that exist in life. Everyone will be able to connect.”

The play is brought to life by music created by musical director and composer Jonathan Girling.

He say: “Putting on a play always involves collaboration. The most important person is the director, who puts the team together, makes all the final decisions, and is the driving force behind the production.

“The rest of the creative team is made up of the writer, the set-designer, lighting designer, composer, movement director, sound designer, fight director and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s a huge team of people that have made The Kite Runner happen.

As the composer, the script and director are always my primary points of reference when thinking about the music. What does the script say to me (what sounds, tunes, emotions, textures or colours does it make me imagine?), and then what does the director want to do with the play?

“Once I’ve spent some time with the director and script, I’ll start working on ideas, listing key scenes and moments in the drama. These initial ideas – normally written notes on traditional manuscript, or an instrument or two – are then introduced into the rehearsal room, and that’s where the real magic starts to happen.”

Jonathan says with the first version of the show, The Kite Runner had a great singer whose voice inspired him to think about writing songs to underpin some key emotional scenes. After he’d written the songs, and taught him the music, they rehearsed them into each scene to see how they worked. Tabla was also an important addition.

“The next most important person for me in The Kite Runner is the near-omnipresent tabla player. The tabla – Indian drums you’ll see at the front of the stage – are mentioned in the script, but the use of tabla music presented me with my biggest challenge. I hadn’t researched Indian music since I was at university, so I enlisted the help of the Asian Music Network (Viram Jasani) and Emeritus Professor of Afghan Music & Ethonomusicology at Goldsmiths, John Baily.

“Viram helped me find a tabla player – Hanif Kahn – and John took me through the (very subtle!) differences between Afghan, Indian and Pakistan classical music.

“With their initial help and oversight, Hanif and I started on a five-week exploration of collaborative creativity that produced all of the tabla music in The Kite Runner. Hanif couldn’t read western notation, and I couldn’t understand how on earth he played such complex rhythms, so we initially just had to find a way of communicating (mostly in gestures, sounds and taps!).

“In the end, some of the rhythms are original Jonathan – as in Assef’s first appearance – and others are me honing and shaping traditional Indian rhythms into music cues useful for the drama, perfectly executed by Hanif on the stage.”

As Jonathan and Hanif introduced more and more tabla music into the show, things started to take shape. But the one thing Jonathan never interfered with was Hanif’s pre-show performance, in which he demonstrates his virtuosity.

The Kite Runner also features plenty of songs. Jonathan adds: “The songs themselves are sung live but off-stage, hidden from the audience. The singers can see the action, but we can’t see them.

“I experimented with a number of ragas – Indian classical scales, akin to Western major and minor scales – to reinforce the authentic nature of The Kite Runner. In the end, the songs were based on Raag Malkauns, one of the oldest Indian ragas, each one a variation on the other (apart from the female ‘wailing’ song).

“The raga contains a haunting, contemplative character that lends itself well to the play.”