Shakespeare in Kabul

Landrigan describes choosing and adapting the play (which he did with Jaber), finding a Farsi translation that could be put into Dari (one of Afghanistan's main languages), raising 130,000 to cover production costs, obtaining official sponsorship from the Afghan-run Foundation of Culture and Civil Society, and arranging partial financial support from the British Consul. [...]although many women came to audition, casting women's roles proved challenging because Taliban-era restrictions meant most women had, at best, the equivalent of a grade school education. (Photographs of the production can be found on the publisher website, http://www.shakespeareinkabul.com/, which also includes interviews with the actors, the adapted script in English, the Dari script, and the theatre program in English and Dari.) Love's Labour's Lost played for three packed performances in Kabul and later travelled to other parts of the country, some of them still combat zones. The book's final section, "Resolution," written by both authors, moves from the production's successful opening night, August 31, 2005, through subsequent performances and includes a follow-up dated December 2010 when there was a possibility that Jaber would direct the company in The Comedy of Errors at the Globe Theatre in London.