The Great Game: Afghanistan is a festival exploring Afghan culture and history through a series of specially commissioned plays, readings, exhibitions and discussions, running from 17 April to 14 June.

Tricycle theatre Artistic Director Nicolas Kent said: “The aim of the Festival is to help audiences understand more about Afghanistan, and to open up debate, appreciation and discussion on Afghanistan’s importance to Britain as we move into the second decade of the 21st century.”

Part Two: Communism, The Mujahideen & The Taliban 1979-1996 comprises the following plays: 

Black Tulips by David Edgar

1979, an army of a super-power invaded Afghanistan. Soviet troops were sent to combat backwardness and banditry, to defend women’s rights, to build hospitals and schools. They thought they would all be home in a few months. 

Edgar is one of the UK’s foremost political playwrights whose most recent play, Testing The Echo, played at the Tricycle theatre in 2008. 

Blood And Gifts by J T Rogers

Two Afghans have risked their lives crossing the Pakistan/Afghanistan border to meet with two Americans in a safehouse. The aim is to negotiate arms but the Americans’ offer of Enfield rifles, radio equipment and medical supplies is considered by the Afghans insufficient to repel the Russians. 

Rogers’s plays include The Overwhelming, Madagascar and White People. 

Miniskirts Of Kabul by David Greig

The Taliban are closing in on Kabul: shells and rockets are exploding around the capital. A woman is interviewing President Najibullah, who has sought refuge in the UN compound. He talks about fashion, communism, torture and whisky, but time is running out. 

Greig’s numerous plays include The American Pilot, Ramallah and Damascus, which played at the Tricycle in 2009, plus several plays for the Donmar Warehouse including a version of Strindberg’s Creditors, which played there in 2008. 

The Lion Of Kabul by Colin Teevan

Two Afghan aid workers disappear while distributing rice. Rabia, their UN Director of Operations, is determined to discover what has happened to them. The problem is her organisation does not recognise the Taliban, and the Taliban does not recognise her. She seeks justice but who is to dispense it?

Teevan wrote the Young Vic’s Christmas show Amazonia and his adaptation of Kafka’s Monkey plays there in March 2009. His other work includes How Many Miles to Basra?, The Diver And The Bee and The Walls. 

For more about The Great Game: Afghanistan, read the First Night Feature or the Big Interview with Jemima Rooper.