THE KITE RUNNER Returns to San Jose in April

The Kite Runner, a play with music based on Khaled Hosseini’s internationally bestselling novel, returns home to San Jose’s Hammer Theatre in two weeks. Adapted by SJSU theatre and film professor Matthew Spangler, the play was workshopped in San Jose, where it made its debut at the San Jose Repertory Theatre (now Hammer Theatre) in 2009 before heading to Broadway and the West End. It will return home to San Jose and the Hammer Theatre prior to the North American tour. The production will feature the talents of local Fremont-based Salar Nader, the renowned musician and tabla player who dazzled audiences as he played onstage as part of the Broadway production. 

Casting is now complete with Ramzi Khalaf taking the lead role of Amir.

Other members of the cast inlude:

• Raji Ahsan
• Danish Farooqui
• Shahzeb Zahid Hussain 
• Hassan Nazari-Robati
• Haythem Noor
• James Rana
• Jonathan Shaboo
• Kevin Stevens
• Wiley Naman Strasser
• Awesta Zarif
• Jade Ziane
• Sophie Zmorrod

The Kite Runner plays for 7 performances, April 3-7. Tickets start at $65.00 and can be purchased at hammertheatre.com.
 
"It's incredible to see the stage play of The Kite Runner return to the very building and city that launched it over fifteen years ago,” says playwright Matthew Spangler, “when the San José Repertory Theatre did the first regional theatre production in 2009, two years after San José State University produced it in 2007. So now, after runs on Broadway, in London’s West End, the Dubai Opera House, and at many theatres around the world, it’s amazing for me and those in The Kite Runner extended family, who have nurtured this play over the years, to see it, finally, two decades later, returning home."

The powerful stage production of The Kite Runner tells a haunting tale of friendship  spanning cultures and continents, following one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption. Afghanistan is a divided country, and two childhood friends are about to be torn apart. It’s a beautiful afternoon in Kabul and the skies are full of the excitement and joy of a kite flying tournament. But neither of the boys can foresee the incident which will change their lives forever. Told across two decades and two continents, The Kite Runner is an unforgettable journey of forgiveness, and shows us all that we can be good again. 

Originally published in 2003, Hosseini’s The Kite Runner became a bestseller across the globe and has since been published in 70 countries, selling 31.5 million copies in 60 languages. Now this powerful story has been adapted into a stunning stage production.
 
The Kite Runner originally premiered at the San Jose Repertory Theater in 2009. In 2013, Nottingham Playhouse and Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse staged a new production in the UK. In 2017, The Kite Runner returned to the stage in London’s West End for two critically-lauded, limited engagements at Wyndham’s Theatre and the Playhouse Theatre. The much-anticipated Broadway production played a strictly limited run at the Hayes Theater in the summer of 2022.
 

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