From 2001 to 2021, the War in Afghanistan was the longest war in American history.
The consequences are explored in “Selling Kabul,” opening Tuesday at Signature Theatre.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever watched or read a play that reads so much like a suspense thriller,” Actress Awesta Zarif told WTOP. “You’re on the edge of your seat the whole time. It’s still so intimate, real, heartbreaking and beautiful, but it feels like watching a suspense movie. The dialogue is so sharp and snappy like you’re watching a ping-pong match.”
Set in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2013, the play follows a sister named Afiya (Awesta Zarif), who secretly shelters her translator brother, Taroon (Mazin Akar), from the Taliban while he awaits the much-delayed arrival of a special American visa on the eve of his son’s birth.
“He’s waiting for an SIV, Special Immigrant Visa, granted to American allies,” Zarif said. “There’s a lot of pressure on this evening because I let him know that his wife went into early labor and his son is in the world now. That makes him even more eager to leave, but he can’t because as soon as he leaves the apartment he might be caught by the Taliban.”
A finalist for last year’s Pulitzer Prize for drama, the play is written by playwright Sylvia Khoury, who based the story on a real experience she overheard living in New York City.
“She’s actually a doctor who is also a playwright, and her husband is a lawyer who was doing some pro-bono work with somebody in a very similar situation to our character,” Zarif said. “She overheard the Afghan person complaining about being stuck in their sibling’s home … and it kind of inspired this story, so it’s very much based on something real.”
While it’s set in 2013, it could easily be set today after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021, when the world saw horrific images of Afghan refugees clinging to U.S. airplanes pleading to evacuate.
“It’s incredibly apropos,” Zarif said. “There are still so many people who are eligible for the visa, but there’s an 18,000-person backlog. … They were all hoping for a better ending. Everyone believed that this was going to lead to a better future. I don’t think anyone expected for things to turn out how they did, how quickly and drastically it went downhill.”
The immersive production runs 95 minutes without an intermission.
“We are in the sister’s apartment that she shares with her husband, Jawid, and the entire thing takes place in their living room,” Zarif said. “Think hyper-realism, we’ve got a real kitchen on stage, we’ve got a real living room, we’ve got a real bedroom in the back. We’re in the ARK Theatre, which is the smaller space at Signature, so it’s incredibly intimate.”
It’s extra special for Zarif and castmate Yousof Sultani, who both hail from Afghanistan.
“I was born in Kabul and I was there until I was about 2,” Zarif said. “I was so excited to see that this play is being done in the DMV area because this is the second-highest Afghan diaspora in the country. … Not to mention, we’re next to D.C. where there are lots of policies being made that can have a very real impact on a lot of new Afghan arrivals.”
Listen to our full conversation here.
