‘Selling Kabul’ reveals a price

By Daniel Jackovino Staff Writer

UNION — Premiere Stages, at Kean University, recently staged “Selling Kabul,” a play about the tenacious strength of family and culture to survive a collapsing social order.

This 100-minute play, staged in real time without intermission, had its New Jersey premier. The span of time witnessed by the audience is the same allotted to the play’s four characters, who confront irrevocable decisions. This adds a dimension to the work, a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist written by Sylvia Khoury. While the concerns are universal, the actions of the play tell the audience that, although this is a situation America helped to create, what you see and hear passing by you is not part of your spectators’ world. “Selling Kabul” is more than worthwhile entertainment.

As the lights come up, we hear the sounds of a roaring wind and a crying baby. It makes one think of survival with good reason. We are in a comfortable apartment, in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan.

American soldiers are withdrawing from the country, leaving a power vacuum for the repressive Taliban to fill. We learn this from Taroon, an Afghan who worked as an American aide, who is hiding in his sister’s apartment. This is where the action is set. He holds paperwork, his job evaluation and speaks of the documents, given to him by a departed American, “Jeff,” as if they were magical. He is certain they will help him obtain a visa to America.

Taroon is played by Zaven Ovian. As a