Selling Kabul Lays Bare the Perils of Vulnerable Alliances

When the United States hastily and clumsily pulled out of Afghanistan in August of 2021, chaotic became the single word that reverberated through the news cycle regarding its exodus.  Although both promised and anticipated, the departure proved an abrupt and awkward end to a record twenty-year investment in U.S. blood and U.S. dollars.  Scenes of desperation and rank terror as people swarmed Kabul’s airport in their attempts to escape the country filled television screens.  Afghanis who worked with U.S. troops as interpreters and helpers knew they would be targeted by the Taliban as collaborators and punished, likely by death.   Selling Kabul, a superb play written by Sylvia Khoury now at Northlight, is about a man and his family who weren’t able to secure seats on one of those planes.

Watching former President Obama on TV, with then Vice President Biden visible over his left shoulder, announcing the decision to leave Afghanistan is the first thing we see when the play begins. In hiding in his sister’s apartment, Taroon (Owais Ahmed) isn’t supposed to be watching television because the light from the screen might be detectable from the outside.  When he hears someone at the door, he hastily turns the TV off and hides in a closet.  Those few minutes observing Taroon watch the news alone gave you time to take in his world.  Other than an absence of chairs and an abundance of cushions on the floor, the modest apartment looked invitingly familiar.  Comfortable.  His sister, Afiya (Aila Ayilam Peck), takes her time to let him know it’s safe to come out after she enters their home. 

The vigilance, anxiousness and need to conceal himself all become clear as soon as the brother and sister begin to talk.  She’s just left the hospital where Taroon’s wife has given birth to their first child.  Wanted by the Taliban and forced to disappear, he hasn’t seen his wife in months and must rely on Afiya for everything.  She and her husband, despite grave danger, provide him refuge.  Not even their mother knows he’s there.  He depended on her to supply the moral and tangible support his wife needed during her pregnancy.  And he relied on her to be there with his wife at the hospital when he could not. She is the rock, a role Peck as Afiya fills brilliantly. 

On stage or off, It’s rare you see a brother and sister talk with such candor, equanimity and trust.  To be as convincing as it is here, each of those things must be girded by love. These two actors, Ahmed and Peck; aided by Hamid Dehghani’s precision direction, endow it with ravishing authenticity.  Whenever he insists he must go to the hospital to be with his wife and to see his child, she invokes unsparing reason and reminds him his first responsibility is to live. 

Before the country’s collapse, Taroon’s dream was to eventually make it to America.  Ostensibly, he was justified in believing that dream could come true and he still hoped it might be possible. Like many interpreters he had excellent relations with his American liaisons who recognized his bravery and value in Afghanistan.  They easily saw his potential in America.  Afiya, and the playwright, question the integrity of America’s lure.  The American dream can be “dangled” as an enticement but, as Khoury has stated in interviews, it can also place you in peril.

Inescapably, suspense runs thick throughout the play.  The vigilance, the fear, the anticipation all grow as the play jets on.  Without Leyla (Shadee Vossoughi) it would be sodden with unrelenting apprehension.  As Afiya’s best friend, her spirit and nature bring lightness and laughter that stem the despair.  She offers an aura that dares to suggest hope. As close as they are as friends, absolute trust is not something Afiya can afford.  Suspecting Leyla senses she knows where her brother is causes the women to engage in a cautious and silent conversation beneath their words.  Watching that delicate and speechless dialogue transpire is just one stone among many on Selling Kabul’s long string of jewels.

Fullness and richness of character counts as others.  Perhaps circumstances can demand we employ candor and honesty to survive.  When Afiya’s husband Jawid (Ahmad Kamal), arrives home; another personality, subdued but potent, impacts the play’s destination. Affiliated with the Taliban, his character represents the web of complexity that surrounds so much of life and the bargains we make to avoid its cruelest threats.  The way he faces and addresses his own culpability, and the way his truthfulness is received, counts as a bracing lesson in humility and forgiveness.

Nominated in 2022 for a Pulitzer Prize, Selling Kabul lays bare the reverberating costs of dangerous dreams.  There are an estimated 70,000 Afghanis like Taroon stranded in their home country marked for capture and retribution.  Those who made it to the United States live in limbo, able to work, but not able to pursue citizenship.  A moving tribute to willed resilience and a powerful indictment of national responsibility; Khoury’s work of fiction, and this cast of exceptional actors, enlighten, humanize the abstract and calls us to action.    

Selling Kabul

Through February 25, 2024

Northlight Theatre

9501 Skokie Boulevard

Skokie, IL   60077

Go to: Northlight.org for ticket information