Blood and Gifts Cast and Creative Interviews
Blood and Gifts Production Photos
Photos by T. Charles Erickson
Video clips from BLOOD AND GIFTS
2hrs, 35 min (with a 15-min intermission)
"SUPERB! Engrossing and illuminating. A first-rate production with the taut grip of a spy novel. J.T. Rogers's knowledge of the hearts and minds of his characters is as deep as his grasp of the geopolitical games being played. Director Bartlett Sher has cast the production in depth, resulting in vital, precisely detailed performances in both the major and minor roles." -Isherwood, The New York Times
BLOOD AND GIFTS is, at its core, a spy-versus-spy play, laced with black humor. Rogers gives us a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse, evoking the worlds of Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. At the same time, we get a wonderfully comic set of richly drawn character studies. The play starts with a CIA agent arriving in Pakistan in 1981 to begin his mission -- covert funding of Afghan freedom fighters. We meet his English and Russian secret-service counterparts, Pakistani military officers, Afghan mujahideen, a US Senator and many others -- each with at least two faces.
We all know how it seemed to turn out back then, with the Afghans taking down the seemingly invincible Soviets thanks to our 'gifts.' But this is not a period piece written in the 1980s. It is a new play written with one eye firmly on our situation now -- still in Afghanistan -- and thus a wry thread of hindsight is woven throughout.
BLOOD AND GIFTS was commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater, and presented in 2010 at the National Theatre in London. An earlier version was presented as part of a cycle of 11 plays about Afghanistan titled The Great Game: Afghanistan at the Tricycle Theatre in London.
The Women of Afghanistan
Following is a personal note from Awesta, the Afghan pediatrician interviewed in the LCT Review's BLOOD AND GIFTS issue.
Thanks for the Review and for the update on the play. I am so pleased the play has done well. You have done a great job of educating people on our distant but troubled neck of the wood, Afghanistan. My passion is women's issue in Afghanistan, I do not care much about the politics.
If you get the chance and would like to read something very heartbreaking regarding women of Afghanistan click here.
There is so much help needed. Here is another wonderful site.
Best wishes,
Awesta
Read the interview with Awesta here.
View the full BLOOD AND GIFTS issue here.
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