**** Family! To almost everyone, we are very protective of our family. Sacrifice! What will we sacrifice to protect the aforementioned family?

In the powerful, suspenseful “Selling Kabul” now on stage at Northlight Theatre as part of its 2023/2024 season, we have a story that gets to the heart of this. Taroon (deftly handled by Owais Ahmed)  was at one time an interpreter for the US Government in Afghanistan. As the Americans began withdrawing as ordered by President Obama, he is no longer protected. He is on the run and in hiding. At the same time, his wife is giving birth to his baby boy, but he cannot see either of them for fear that the Taliban would grab and possibly kill him.

 

His sister Aflya ( played to perfection by Alla Ayllam Peck) and brother-in-law , Jawid ( Ahmad kamal) have made sure he is safe and that if the Taliban gets too close, have an escape route planned. Can he avoid capture? Can he see his wife and son?

 

In this 90 tense minutes of theater ( no intermission) directed sharpley by Hamid Dehghani, we see why playwright Sylvia Khoury’s play was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize. We see him hiding and avoiding the neighbor down the hall, Leyla ( Shadee Vossoughi) as she struggles to see if he has been around. She also has a new baby and a husband and is also fearful of what the Taliban will do if they cannot find Taroon.

 

The tension is great and some surprises take place that I cannot divulge as it would ruin the complete story. I will tell you that there will be moments where you will be “on the edge” of your seats, and the ending just makes you speechless.

 

On the tech side, the set (Joseph Johnson) is very realistic and the costumes ( David Arevalo) seem to be what we might expect. The lighting (Maximo Grano de Oro) and sound ( Jeffrey Levin) are right on making this 90 wonderful minutes of storytelling that will capture the hearts of anyone who has ever been involved in a war or battle.

 

“Selling Kabul” will continue through February 25th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Thursdays      7:30 p.m.

Fridays           7:30 p.m.

Saturdays     2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Sundays             2:30 p.m.

On February 16th, they will have an open captioned and relaxed/sensory friendly performance, and on the 17th a described/touch tour will take place at 2:30 p.m.

Tickets are available at 847-673-6300 or online at www.northlighttheatre.org

Northlight is located at The North Shore Center For Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd. in Skokie with plenty of free parking.

Tickets range from $49-$89

 

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Selling Kabul”.