AFGHANISTAN IS NOT FUNNY Comes to Holden Street Theatres

He had machine guns pointed at him. He narrowly dodged a landmine. He was abducted by a local militia and threatened with murder by a war criminal.

Afghanistan Is Not Funny will mark the first time Henry Naylor has performed in Australia in more than 20 years. The show will have its world premiere at the 2022 Adelaide Fringe at the Holden Street Theatres, 34 Holden Street Hindmarsh, playing from 12 February to 16 March in The Arch.

Afghanistan Is Not Funny is an autobiographical show about comedian Henry Naylor's shocking and transformative 10-day trip to bomb-damaged post-Taliban Afghanistan in 2002. And in 2022, as Afghanistan again falls under Taliban rule - he will tell us what may have been lost.

Invited by a war-correspondent friend, Naylor travelled to post-war Kabul see the damage with stills photographer Sam Maynard. But after seeing bomb destruction, landmine victims and refugees - his life was transformed. He metamorphised from a stand-up comedian - into a playwright obsessed with the West's interaction with the Middle East.

Subsequently, Henry's series of shows - entitled 'The Arabian Nightmares' - have been some of the most decorated in the history of the Adelaide Fringe. Four of his 'Arabian Nightmares' have played here - three have won the Overall Adelaide Critics Circle Awards, another Best Overall Theatre, and in total they have won 7 Weekly Awards. The plays have been translated into 12 languages, and in all, have won 39 major theatre awards world-wide - in France, Edinburgh, Los Angeles, Prague and Norway.

Afghanistan Is Not Funny will play in The Arch, Holden Street Theatres, from 12 February - 16 March as part of the 2022 Adelaide Fringe.

Henry Naylor is a multi-award-winning UK playwright, who has been described as 'one of our best new playwrights' in The Times, 'one of our best new playwrights' in The Evening Standard, and 'one of the most thought-provoking playwrights of our times', in The Spectator.

Henry's plays have won, or been nominated for, 34 international awards, including one of France's most prestigious awards for the arts, the Globes De Cristal. In 2016, he joined J.K. Rowling in having written one of the 10 Best Plays Of The Year by The Times. He is one of only a handful of writers to have won the Fringe First three times, and has won four of the top five Fringe awards at the Edinburgh Fringe, including the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award. The one he hasn't won - the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award - he's been nominated for three times. Three of his plays have had month-long runs off-Broadway, and in 2017 alone there were more than 300 public performances of his work over five continents. His work has been translated into eight languages.

Afghanistan is not Funny plays; Tue 15 Feb - Fri 18 Feb: 6pm Sat 19 Feb: 2:30pm, 6pm Sun 20 Feb: 1pm, 6pm Tue 22 Feb: 9pm Wed 23 Feb: 11:30am, 9pm Thu 24 Feb - Fri 25 Feb: 9pm Sat 26 Feb: 4pm, 9pm Sun 27 Feb: 4pm Tue 1 Mar: 6pm Wed 2 Mar: 11:30am, 6pm Thu 3 Mar - Sun 6 Mar: 6pm Tue 8 Mar - Sat 12 Mar: 9pm Sun 13 Mar: 1pm, 9pm

Tickets are priced from $25.00 to $30.00 and may be purchased through FringeTix
or www.holdenstreettheatres.com Companion Card holders welcome.

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