Description
Recommended age 14+ A Thousand Splendid Suns is a new production of Khaled Hosseini’s highly acclaimed and award-winning novel. It is adapted for the stage by Ursula Rani Sarma and directed by Roxanna Silbert. An epic and beautiful story of love, friendship and hope against adversity, A Thousand Splendid Suns centres around the lives of two women in Afghanistan spanning from the 1960s to early 2000s. Much of the story is set against the background of war and invasion in Kabul. The story contains sensitive content including violence, sexual assault, domestic abuse, murder, death, trauma, miscarriage, suicide, underage marriage and misogyny plus some strong and offensive language. If you would like to read more about how these specific topics feature, please see below for details: War Depictions and descriptions of war run throughout the play. Scenes include death, grief, the displacement of people and the trauma of refugees. The threat of further violence and war is an ongoing theme. Death, violence and threats There are several references to death and bereavement caused by war. There is a strong reference to the execution of a character by governmental regime. The play also references the deaths of multiple children, the death of a spouse and a depiction of a killing. The script also contains descriptions of violent acts, including a sexual assault and a graphically described injury. There are numerous depictions of domestic violence which feature threats of murder, spouse selling/forced marriage and starvation. The story includes references of a suicide, which is also alluded to onstage. Domestic abuse and sexual violence Domestic abuse and coercive and violent behaviour towards women are recurring themes within the play. These include marital rape, sexual assault and sexual coercion, the word ‘whore’ and a mention of an honour killing. Trauma Aside from references to trauma caused by war, bereavement and domestic abuse, the play also includes references to experiences of miscarriage and a depiction of a traumatic birth. Religion Elements of the story could be perceived as religious bigotry. Distressing sounds and visuals There are multiple loud gunshot, missile and bomb noises in the production, as well as haze, depictions of blood and use of prop guns and knives onstage. Strong language As indicated above, violent language is used sporadically throughout along with significant misogynistic language and mild swearing. There are some instances of ableism, and one character is the victim to a racist slur.