''Selling Kabul'' is a 2019 American play by Sylvia Khoury. Set in 2013, the play centers a former interpreter for the

U.S. Military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is th ...

during the

War in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

forced to choose between witnessing the birth of his child or staying in hiding as a target of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pas ...

. The play was a finalist for the 2022

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were ...

Production history

Williamstown Theatre Festival (2019)

''Selling Kabul'' had its world premiere on July 10, 2019 on the Nikos Stage at the

Williamstown Theatre Festival The Williamstown Theatre Festival is a resident summer theater on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1954 by Williams College news director Ralph Renzi and drama program chairman David C. Bryant. I ...

, produced in association with

Playwrights Horizons Playwrights Horizons is a not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American playwrights, composers, and lyricists, and to the production of their new work. Under the ...

. The play won the 2018 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award administered by the Williamstown Theatre Festival, which grants winners a reading at the Williastown Theatre Festival. This production was directed by Tyne Rafaeli, and featured

Omid Abtahi Omid Abtahi ( fa, امید ابطحی) is an Iranian-American actor. noorfilmfestival.com Accessed 2016-1-28 He is best known for his roles as Salim in Starz Original '' American Gods'', Doctor Pershing in '' The Mandalorian'' on Disney+, Saleem ...

May Calamawy May El Calamawy ( ar, مي القلماوي, , born October 28, 1986) is an Egyptian-Palestinian actress who has worked and resided in the United States since 2015. She is known for her roles in the American television series ''Ramy'' as Dena Ha ...

, Marjan Neshat, and Babak Tafti.

Playwrights Horizons (2021)

''Selling Kabul'' made its Off-Broadway and New York debut on November 17, 2021 through Playwrights Horizons at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, directed by Tyne Rafaeli and starring

Francis Benhamou Francis Benhamou is an American actress. She received Lucille Lortel Award and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in the 2022 off-Broadway play ''Prayer for the French Republic''. Life and career Be ...

, Mattico David, Marjan Neshat, and Dario Ladani Sanchez. This production was produced in association with the Williamstown Theatre Festival. The show was initially scheduled to play in March 2020, with Babak Tafti in the role of Taroon, but was rescheduled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Northlight Theatre (2024)

In 2024, ''Selling Kabul'' was staged at Northlight Theatre in Chicago, directed by Hamid Dehghani. This production received critical acclaim for its tense and emotionally rich portrayal of the play's themes.

Reception

The show has received positive reviews. Alexis Soloski of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' declared the show's Playwrights Horizon production a Critics Pick, praising its sharp writing and the effective suspense created by the script and production design. Catey Sullivan, writing about a February 2024 production of the show by Northlight Theatre for the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'', similarly praised Khoury for having "structured a breathless, airtight plot where every moment of dialogue — and even seemingly innocuous bits of sound design — fits precisely into an intricate, meticulously rendered puzzle that shocks and surprises right up until the last piece falls into place."

References

External links

* {{IOBDB show, id=Selling Kabul, title=Selling Kabul 2019 plays Off-Broadway plays Plays about the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)