Cast Announcement for A Thousand Splendid Suns
We are thrilled to announce the casting for our new production of A Thousand Splendid Suns by Ursula Rani Sarma adapted from the Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel and spiritual sequel to The Kite Runner.
This new production will be directed by Roxana Silbert, who directed the critically acclaimed European Premiere of the play at The Rep in May 2019, and returns to helm this new production said:
I’m really delighted to be returning to the brilliant Birmingham Rep stage, which I love, and I’m honoured to be revisiting this beautiful adaptation of A Thousand Splendid Suns, one of the final plays I directed at The Rep before I ended my tenure as Artistic Director in 2019. This is a new production in response to the evolving challenges women face in Afghanistan – and sadly even more urgent and necessary today than it was 6 years ago.”
The cast for this new production are: Kerena Jagpal (Laila), Rina Fatania (Mariam), Jonas Khan (Rasheed), Jonny Khan (Tariq, Wakil and Driver), Peyvand Sadeghian (Nana, Fariba and Doctor), David Ahmad (Babi, Mullah Faizullah, Zaman and Militiaman), Noah Manzoor (Zalmai and Wakil’s Wife), Tahir Shah (Jalis, Abdul Sharif, Interrogator and Militiaman) and Humera Syed (Young Mariam, Asia and Nurse).
Below you’ll find our cast headshots, simply click on each one to read their biographies!
Meet our A Thousand Splendid Suns cast
Kerena Jagpal
Kerena Jagpal trained at the Oxford School of Drama.
Theatre credits include: Community (Birmingham Rep), Drop the Dead Donkey (Hat Trick & Simon Friend productions), Brown Girl Noise (Haldi & Co), Mismatch & Twitch (Sky Comedy Rep), Circle Game (Southwark Playhouse) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 13, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message To The Woman He Once Loved In The Former Soviet Union, Tiger Country (training).
Workshop credits include: The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe (RSC).
Television credits include: Outnumbered – Christmas special (BBC), DI Ray (ITV) and 3 Body Problem (Netflix).
Film credits include: 100 Nights of Hero (Amazon Studios)
Rina Fatania
Training: Central School of Speech & Drama.
Previously at the Rep: Anita & Me
Theatre credits include: The Buddha of Suburbia (RSC) Crazy For You (West End); The Killing Of Sister George (Told By An Idiot); The Art Of Illusion (Hampstead Theatre); Favour (The Bush/Cleanbreak); Sheila’s Island (UK Tour); NW Trilogy (Kiln); The Man In The White Suit (Wyndham’s Theatre); Dead Dog in a Suitcase (Kneehigh); Wah! Wah! Girls! (Sadler’s Wells); Approaching Empty (Kiln Theatre, Tamasha, Live Theatre); The Tin Drum (Kneehigh Theatre); Charlotte/Monks in Oliver Twist (Regents Park); Roller Diner (Soho Theatre); The Village, Love N Stuff, Sinbad the Sailor (Stratford East); Dick Whittington (Hackney Empire); The Empress (RSC); A Fine Balance, Strictly Dandia (Tamasha); Britain’s Got Bhangra, The Deranged Marriage (Rifco Arts); Bombay Dreams (West End); Arabian Nights (MAC).
TV and Film credits include: Nolly (ITV); Too Close (Snowed In Productions); Wanderlust (BBC, Netflix); People Just Do Nothing (BBC); Ruby (Halcyons Heart Films); Mummji Presents (BBC) and Shammu in Mumbai Charlie (Pukkanasha Films).
Jonas Khan
Theatre credits include: The Empire (The Royal Court), I Call My Brothers (The Gate), The Girl on the Train (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Jungle (The National, The Young Vic).
TV credits include: Captain Azizi in Our Girl (BBC); Three Girls (BBC); Love, Lies & Records (BBC); Terror in the Sky, Silent Witness (BBC); Strike Back (Sky 1); Tyrant (FOX/Sky Atlantic); Ackley Bridge S2 (Channel 4); The Ipcriss File (ITV); Eastenders (BBC); Doctors (BBC); Good Karma Hospital (ITV); Hollyoaks (Channel 4) and Reunion (BBC).
Radio credits include: Silver Street (BBC).
Film credits include: Rock The Kasbah (Covert Media); The Sweeney (Vertigo Films); In Camera (BBC); The Smell of Petrol (Red Marked Films); London Tomorrow (Lincia Daniel); Guns (Dryad Productions) and Little French Fish (Zebra Fish Media). Khan won Best Actor in a short at the World Music and Independent Film Festival 2021.
www.emptagehallett.co.uk/clients/jonas-khan/
Jonny Khan
Theatre credits include: Statues (Bush Theatre); The Tempest (RSC); The Vanishing Room (New Diorama Theatre/ ETF); Assembly (Almeida); Anthem (Bush Theatre); A Very Special Guest Star (Omnibus Theatre).
TV credits include: Sister Boniface (BBC for Britbox)
Jonny is currently under commission at Camden People’s Theatre and a recipient of the Bloom Bursary commission at Bush Theatre.
Peyvand Sadeghian
Peyvand Sadeghian is an award-winning interdisciplinary actor, writer, and theatre maker from London.
As a maker, work includes: DUAL دوگانه (Vault Festival 2020 Show of the Week Award, Keep it Fringe Award 2023).
Theatre credits include: Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran (Fringe First Award 2019); Tim Crouch’s Toto Kerblammo!, Pinocchio (Unicorn Theatre) and Edith (Lowry/ Theatre Clwyd).
TV credits include: Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Shondaland/Netflix); The Power (Amazon Studios); and Moon Knight (Marvel).
Film credits include: Pirates (Reggie Yates) and short film Desert Island (Baby Cow Productions).
David Ahmad
David trained at The Drama Studio London.
Theatre credits include: The Crucible, Hamlet (National Theatre); The Kite Runner, The Crucible, What I Heard About Iraq (West End); Uncle Vanya – Broadway World award nomination Best Supporting Performance, Romeo & Juliet (Orange Tree); Pop Music (Hull Truck); Aladdin (SJT); The Haunting, The Prince & The Pauper (New Vic); The Bolds (Unicorn Theatre); Eyecatcher (Sheffield Crucible); Potted Potter (Little Shubert Theater, New York/Melbourne International Comedy Festival), Potted Pirates (Pleasance); The Card (Claybody Theatre); The Game’s Afoot, Ernest & The Pale Moon (Les Enfants Terribles); Sleeping Beauty (Colchester Mercury); The Good Soul of Szechuan, Fear & Misery in The Third Reich (Watford Palace); George’s Marvellous Medicine, Tom’s Midnight Garden (Birmingham Stage Company); Romeo & Juliet (Akademie der Künste, Berlin)
TV credits include: Ghosts (BBC); Doctors (BBC); Apple Tree Yard (Kudos); The Frank Skinner Show (Avalon)
Film credits include: The Phantom of The Open (Baby Cow) and Kat and The Band (Boudica Films).
Noah Manzoor
Theatre credits include: East is East (Birmingham Rep/National Theatre); Wizard Of Oz (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield); The King and I (Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield).
TV credits include: Secret Level: Dungeons and Dragons (Amazon Prime); Silverpoint (CBBC/Hulu); The Crow Girl (Paramount Plus)
Film credits include: Good Boy (Recorded Picture Company); Letterbox (Wax Films); Ravi (Independent Short Film).
Noah has also written and starred in A Few More Minutes Please, a short film currently touring festivals around the UK.
Tahir Shah
Tahir‘s previous stage credits include the role of Wendsley MP in Nest for The National Youth Theatre.
TV credits include: Adnan in Alma’s Not Normal, Omar in The Responder, and Imam Hassan in Better.
Film credits include: Mr Shah in A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, and an as-yet-untitled festive film.
Tahir trains with the Identity School of Acting, and is delighted to be playing in A Thousand Splendid Suns – based on his favourite novel.
Humera Syed
Humera graduated from the BRIT school in 2016.
Theatre credits include: Sofia in Expendable (Royal Court); Hafsa in Peanut Butter & Blueberries (Kiln Theatre); Bilquis in Great Expectations (Manchester Royal Exchange); Baani in FAITH (RSC/Coventry City of Culture); Jacinta in The Village (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Rapali in The Arabian Knights (Royal Lyceum Theatre); Pinky in Anita and Me (No 1 Tour).
TV credits include: Olivia in The Stranger (Netflix); Ashleigh in Hullraisers (Channel 4).
Radio credits include: Matilla in Tumanbay (BBC Radio4).
Theatre credits whilst training include: Martha in Spring Awakening, Celia in As You Like It and Kristine in A Doll’s House.
Joining Roxana on the creative team are: Set and Costume Designer Simon Kenny, Lighting Designer Matt Haskins, Sound Designer Clive Meldrum, Composer Elaha Soroor, Movement Director Kuldip Singh Barmi, Fight Director Rachid Sabitri, Fight Director Jessica Hrabowsky, Casting Director Helena Palmer and the Assistant Director is Massi Safa.
Khaled Hosseini’s international best-selling novel is the powerful story of three generations of women discovering strength in unity and finding hope in the unlikeliest of places. Set 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. In A Thousand Splendid Suns, love grows and sustains the human spirit even during the hardest of times.
Playwright Ursula Rani Sarma said:
This play is about the immense strength and endurance of women and how they can survive tremendous suffering to keep those they love alive. It is also about how even in the darkest of times and places, love can grow and sustain the human spirit beyond all pain and hard-ship. It’s about friendship and loyalty, courage and selflessness, grief and violence. What the play has to say about love, endurance, and survival is very much worth listening to for a contemporary audience. There is beauty and strength at the heart of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and I feel so proud to be part of its evolution from novel to stage.
