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Theatre
Homebody/Kabul
Young Vic, London
Michael Billington
Thursday May 23, 2002
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Most American dramatists look inwards. Tony Kushner has always gazed outwards. And not the least remarkable fact about Homebody/Kabul, written well before the events of last September, is that it attempts to embrace and explain the history, culture and ethos of Afghanistan.
Admittedly the first third of this epic play, running well over three-and-a-half hours, is much the most startling. It consists of a lengthy monologue, breathtakingly delivered by Kika Markham, in which a London homebody reveals her insatiable curiosity about history in general and Kabul in particular. Through this "unregenerate chatterer", Kushner traces the history of a city that attracted empire-builders such as Darius and Alexander, was introduced to Islam in 652AD and has been occupied and fought over for centuries.
Kushner not only offers us a portrait of a gentle-spirited, factually voracious, syntactically eccentric woman who claims "I love, love the world", he also establishes his main theme which is that Afghanistan has always been a vital intersection at the mercy of history, geography and spiritual absolutists. But, after the brilliance of the first part, the play settles for mere competence as we see the homebody's husband and daughter pursuing her to Kabul to which she has been ineluctably drawn. She may have been beaten to death by unknown assailants. She may be still alive and secretly married to a Muslim. But, having started as a record of an ungovernable obsession, the play becomes a political mystery about innocents abroad in a strange land.
Along the way, Kushner makes many sharp points. He sits the action in 1998 shortly after Clinton had bombed Afghan terrorist camps as a reprisal for attacks on American embassies; but we are reminded that Clinton was no more successful than Bush in tracking down Osama bin Laden. But Kushner also shows how an unknowable country like Afghanistan exercises a peculiar hold on the western imagination. And running through the play is the idea that every creed and faith, from communism to Islam, wants to dominate Afghanistan but that in the end it eludes even its conquerors.
Although the pudding is somewhat over-egged, it is a richly interesting play and Declan Donnellan has staged it exceptionally well against a simple Nick Ormerod set consisting of a peeling wooden stockade. The acting triumph of the evening be longs to Kika Markham who for more than an hour keeps us riveted with a strange, rambling, word-mangling woman's belief in the overwhelming power of history.
· Until June 22. Box office: 020-7928 63
Useful links
22.05.2002: Declan Donnellan interview
Young Vic Theatre
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