Love Is Not New In This Country [Drama On 3]

By Samantha Ellis. Introduced by Qais Akbar Omar.

In Kabul in 2005, after the defeat of the Taliban, German-Syrian actress and director Corinne Jaber worked hard to achieve what many thought was an impossible task: to bring together a company of Afghan actors to stage a Dari production of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Revolutionary things happen in rehearsal - male and female actors appear on the same stage, make eye contact, become friends, and even talk frankly about love, but are plagued by fears that Afghanistan hasn't really changed that much. The Taliban are making death threats against the actresses.

Could this one production really, as one actor vowed, 'challenge the whole country'?

Based on the book 'A Night in the Emperor's Garden' by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar.

Corinne - Amita Dhiri

Qais - Nima Taleghani

Nabi - Philip Arditti

Parwin - Nathalie Armin

Breshna - G退hane Strehler

Marina - Sarah Agha

Kabir - Paul Chahidi

Shahla - Jumaan Short

Tawab - Mustafa Aryan

Music by Milad Yousofi

Sound design by Alisdair McGregor

Directed by Jeremy Mortimer

Executive Producer Joby Waldman

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3.

Intrepid actors stage a production of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost in Kabul in 2005.

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DO32018020420201101 (R3)