A Thousand Splendid Suns (Play Script)

The script for the stage production of the bestselling Khaled Hosseini novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, as adapted by playwright Ursula Rani Sarma.

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss, and by fate. As they endure the ever-escalating dangers around them--in their home, as well as in the streets of Kabul--they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and suspense, playwright Ursula Rani Sarma reimagines Hosseini's novel to show how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival.

A stunning accomplishment, this reimagination of A Thousand Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreaking, compelling production about unlikely friendship and indestructible love.

This adaptation was first performed by the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in February 2017.Praise for the play:

“A searing portrait of Afghan women . . . the power of A Thousand Splendid Suns is that it brings that reality uncomfortably close and makes you feel the pain of the other.” —The San Francisco Examiner

“A well-timed journey from the page to the stage . . . [this] narrative has renewed relevance.” —Los Angeles Times

“There’s no denying the play’s power, as well as the beauty of its staging and its exquisite musical backdrop.” —The Huffington Post

“Ursula Rani Sarma’s theatrical adaptation . . . packs the cathartic emotional power that made the book a bestseller.” —Stark InsiderUrsula Rani Sarma is an internationally acclaimed writer of Irish-Indian descent. She has written fifteen plays for companies such as The Abbey Theatre, The Royal National Theatre London, A.C.T., The Traverse Theatre, Paines Plough, Clean Break, and the BBC, among many others. Her work for the screen includes projects for the BBC, RTE, TV3, and SKY. Sarma has received numerous awards and has held writer-in-residence positions for the National Theatre, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Centre, and Paines Plough.