Anyone who reads the news from Afghanistan and wonders how we got into this mess in the first place would do well to see this outstanding new work from American playwright JT Rogers.
It’s the most clear-eyed dramatic assessment to date of the current situation, yet its focus is not the present day. It’s the 1979-89 Russian invasion of Afghanistan, when Cold War geo-politics impelled covert CIA funding of Mujahideen warlords, the same men against whom US troops are now locked in seemingly endless combat.
Rogers has made two particularly fine decisions. The first is to leaven this complex subject with judicious dashes of wit. The second is to replay the "Great Game", that centuries-old struggle for power in the region, via three secret servicemen of key nationalities: American, British and Russian. James (Lloyd Owen, giving a lead performance of flinty impressiveness), Simon (Adam James) and Dmitri (Matthew Marsh) realise the compromises they’re forced to make in the national interest but are committed enough to persevere anyway.
Howard Davies’s production highlights Rogers’s minor-key theme of (absentee) fathers. The aforementioned trio, plus Afghan ally Abdullah Khan (Demosthenes Chrysan), have to wonder if this fight is worth it if they never see their families.
Information: 020 7452 3000,nationaltheatre.org.uk
Blood And Gifts
National Theatre: Lyttelton
South Bank, SE1 9PX
