A Thousand Splendid Suns
Following its 2025 sell-out run, we’re excited to announce the return of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns.
A gorgeous story of survival”
★★★★★, Voice Magazine, on The Rep’s 2025 production
In 1992 in an Afghanistan ravaged by war, an orphaned Laila is left alone in an increasingly threatening world. Her older neighbour Rasheed is quick to open his home and takes Laila as his second wife.
Rasheed’s first wife Mariam has no choice but to accept her younger, and now pregnant, rival. As the Taliban take over, life for all of them becomes a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, and the two women find themselves unlikely allies.
An essential piece of modern theatre”
★★★★, WhatsOnStage, on The Rep’s 2025 production.
A triumph of theatrical storytelling”
Best of Birmingham
Audience Comments…
“I was gripped by the story. It felt emotional and thought-provoking.”
“Outstanding!! What a powerful production!!”
“Impeccable. I loved every moment”
“The cast were incredible and really brought the characters to life! If you get the chance to go I highly recommend it!!”
Priority booking for Gold and Silver Friends & Patrons, and Access Register:
Opens today at 12 noon
Priority booking for Bronze Friends and 16-25 Members:
Thu 19 Mar at 12 noon
Public booking opens:
Fri 20 Mar at 12 noon
Venue
Presented by
Birmingham Rep
By
Ursula Rani Sarma
Based on the book by
Khaled Hosseini
Set & costume design by
Simon Kenny
Price
Special Offers
Aged 16 to 25 Discounted tickets are available for this production for registered 16-25 members for performances on Mon 1 Feb, Tue 2 Feb and Tue 9 Feb. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Multi-Buy: Save 10% when you book 3 or more productions in one transaction.
Max 2 discounted tickets per customer, and must be booked for three different productions. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Teens Go Free: Receive one complimentary young persons ticket (13-19 years) when you book one standard ticket on Tue 2 Feb, Wed 3 Feb, Thu 4 Feb, Mon 8 Feb, Tue 9 Feb, Wed 10 Feb and Thu 11 Feb.
To apply, select a full price ticket and free teen ticket once you have selected your seats. T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Rep Friends
- Bronze Friends: Save 10% per production, or 20% when booking 3 or more productions in the same transaction, with no transaction fees.
- Gold/Silver Friends & Rep Patrons: Save 15% per production, or 25% when booking 3 or more productions in the same transaction, with no transaction fees.
Rep Friends memberships start from £60 per year, and feature many more membership benefits.
T&Cs apply – Find Out More
Access Performances
Audio Described: Sat 13 Feb 2.30pm
A Free Touch Tour is available to book at 1pm before the Audio Described performance.
BSL Interpreted: Fri 12 Feb 7.30pm
Captioned: Thu 11 Feb 2.30pm
Chilled: Sat 13 Feb 2.30pm
Women's Only Performance
We will be offering a Women’s Only Performance on Wed 10 Feb at 2.30pm
A Thousand Splendid Suns brings to the fore the difficult truth that in today’s world women still struggle to find spaces where they feel safe and truly at ease.
By offering a women’s only performance for this production we hope to provide that space, thereby honouring the true intent of this powerful and moving story.
Age Guidance
14+
Contains mature content not suitable for young audiences.
Please note, no under 5s will be admitted to the auditorium.
Content Advice
This play contains mature content not suitable for younger audiences. The story details sensitive topics including depictions of violence, abuse and war.
Please read the full content advice for further information.
Latecomers Policy
Please note, latecomers can only be admitted at 10 minutes into the first act. After this point, they will need to wait until the interval to be admitted.
Creative Team
Script by
Ursula Rani Sarma
Ursula Rani Sarma
Ursula Rani Sarma is an award-winning scriptwriter for stage and screen, of Irish Indian descent. Her credits include feature film In The Shadows (Sleeper/ Affine Films / True Brit), Bodkin (Netflix/Higher Ground/Wiip), Smother (Treasure/BBC Studios/ RTE), Delicious (Sky One/Bandit), and Red Rock (Element/TV3) amongst others.
Ursula’s current projects include being the writer and executive producer of television series The Split Up with Sister Pictures for the BBC as well as developing projects for Bad Wolf/ Sky, George Clooney’s Smokehouse, Gillian Anderson’s Fiddlehead and Netflix.
Ursula has written numerous award-winning plays which have been produced around the world. They include Yerma (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Dark Things (Traverse Theatre), Birdsong (The Abbey Theatre), Joanne (Clean Break) and The Magic Tree (Everyman Theatre) amongst many others. Her work is published by Oberon, Faber and Faber, Nick Hern and Penguin Random House. She is currently writing plays for The Royal National Theatre, The Abbey Theatre and EON Productions.
Ursula was the Programme Leader of the MA in Scriptwriting at Bath Spa University for ten years, up until 2019. Ursula now lives in the West of Ireland.
Based on the book by
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini
Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American novelist and physician, best known for his novels The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns and And The Mountains Echoed, which have been published in over seventy countries and sold more than 40 million copies worldwide. Today, Hosseini is recognised as one of the best-selling authors in the world.
Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. His father was a Diplomat for the Afghan Foreign Ministry and his mother was a teacher. In 1976, the Hosseini family were relocated to Paris by the Foreign Ministry. Though they wanted to return to their home in Kabul, Afghanistan was suffering following an extremely violent communist coup and was under invasion by the Soviet Army. The family were granted political asylum in the USA and they moved to California. Hosseini graduated Santa Clara University with a degree in Biology, and then received a medical degree from the University of California.
It was while he was a practising internist in Los Angeles that Hosseini began writing his first novel, The Kite Runner, which was published in 2003. Following its huge success, Hosseini quit medicine to focus solely on writing. Each of his books are set, fully or partially, in Afghanistan and feature an Afghan as the main protagonist. Hosseini took inspiration for his novels from his own experiences in
Afghanistan and draws on influences gained whilst exiled in Paris.
He has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, since 2006. In 2008, he launched The Khaled Hosseini Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which provides humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan
Set & costume design by
Simon Kenny
Simon Kenny
Musical Theatre credits include: Lord Of The Rings (Chicago, Aukland, Sydney); Rehab The Musical (West End); The Lord Of The Rings; Whistle Down The Wind (Watermill); The Lion (Southwark Playhouse/Arizona Theatre Company, Japan, Korea); The Light in the Piazza, Merrily We Roll Along (Royal Academy of Music); The Wiz (Hope Mill); Ghost Quartet (Boulevard Theatre); Assassins (Watermill/Nottingham Playhouse); Cabaret (English Theatre Frankfurt/Deutsches Theater Munich); the multi award-winning Sweeney Todd in a purpose-built pie shop (West End/Off-Broadway, Drama Desk nomination – Outstanding Set Design of a Musical).
Other theatre credits include: Romeo and Juliet (Belgrade, Coventry); Link In My Bio (Luxembourg Opera), The Unseen (Riverside Studios); Bodies of Water (ATC); Here In America, Duet For One (Orange Tree, Richmond); Steel, Brassed Off (Theatre By The Lake); One Last Push (Wiltshire Creative); Murder In The Dark (UK Tour); The Real & Imagined History of the Elephant Man (Nottingham Playhouse); Family Tree (ATC); Blue/Orange (Royal & Derngate Northampton); Nothello (Belgrade/Coventry City of Culture); The Art of Illusion, The Death of a Black Man (Hampstead); Footfalls & Rockaby (Jermyn Street); Antigone (Mercury Colchester); several UK tours for Eclipse including The Gift (Stratford East) and Black Men Walking (Royal Exchange); Crongton Knights, Noughts & Crosses (Pilot/UK tours); Red Dust Road (National Theatre of Scotland); Giraffes Can’t Dance (Curve); The Children (English Theatre Frankfurt); Holes (Nottingham Playhouse/UK tour); Broken Glass (Watford Palace); Babette’s Feast (The Print Room); Rose (HOME); Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare’s Globe).
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Women’s Only Performance
A Thousand Splendid Suns brings to the fore the difficult truth that in today’s world women still struggle to find spaces where they feel safe and truly at ease. By offering a women’s only performance for this production we hope to provide that space, thereby honouring the true intent of this powerful and moving story.