THE KITE RUNNER Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 1

THE KITE RUNNER
GHILZAI
in Afghanistan that not many people know about. We have beautiful traditions and
beautiful clothes and food and language and poetry and art that nobody associates with
Afghanistan. So my role is to bring out all those things in the play which I think Khaled,
the author, has done such a beautiful job with in the book.
JB: Why do you feel that The Kite Runner was such an enormously popular book in the
United States
HG: The book is popular the world over. I was in Europe last year and went to a few
countries and everywhere I turned there was a copy of The Kite Runner in a different
language. I think it’s a story of human beings and it’s a story of a relationship between a
father and son. Also, there is so much power in the story of these two young men who
end up growing up and the difficulties that they face. And, finally, it’s mainly a story of
redemption – we all have done something in our childhood that we feel badly about no
matter what culture we’re from and we wish we could change that. It’s a story that has
elements that we can all relate to, but it just happens to be set in Afghanistan.
JB: So you feel like it’s a popular story worldwide because the thematic elements are so
universal
HG: Absolutely. I think that if this was a traditional Afghan story the protagonist would
have some problems but there would be love and a happy ending. But this is a story of
people with real challenges that has run the common thread through the world. And that’s
what’s so amazing about this global world we live in. We’re all getting to realize that
we’re very much all the same at the core of things.
JB: Tell me about the Afghan community in America. What is the American experience
like for Afghan newcomers and for first-generation Afghan-Americans
HG: There is a large Afghan population in the United States. In the San Francisco Bay Area
actually there are over 50,000 Afghans. There are other large communities in Virginia and
in Queens, New York. So there are places where the populations are concentrated but
there’s a spattering in the middle of the country and also
in Los Angeles and San Diego. It is very fitting that the
book was set in the Fremont area in the East Bay Area,
which is the center of the Afghan community and social
structure. Fremont became that way because there were
some Afghans living there prior to the Russian invasion
(in 1979), and then when the Russians invaded more
people started coming into the United States. It’s natural
for immigrants to want to go somewhere where they know
somebody. So the few families that were there either
became sponsors of people or they just invited people
Little Kabul in Fremont, CA
Arizona Theatre Company Play Guide 30