Guthrie hopes to land play cycle on Afghanistan

As the Guthrie Theater shapes its 2010-11 season, it is planning to bring a massive 12-play festival about Afghanistan's bloody history and intriguing culture to Minneapolis.

Who would want to sit through a 12-hour play cycle based on the last 170 years of Afghan history? The Guthrie is hoping that audiences will be hungry to learn more about the landlocked central Asian nation known today primarily as a terrorist battleground where President Obama is considering sending more American troops.

The cycle of plays, called "The Great Game," was commissioned by London's Tricycle Theatre, where it premiered in the spring to critical kudos. "'The Great Game' is an event rather than a work of art," wrote the critic for the Observer, while the Guardian hailed the cycle as a "mind-blowing achievement."

It is expected that Twin Cities theatergoers could see the ambitious cycle over three nights, or in a weekend marathon lasting nearly 12 hours.

Tour plans being worked out

Nicolas Kent, Tricycle's artistic director, visited Minneapolis on Thursday for talks on an American tour that might include New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as well as the Guthrie.

Securing "The Great Game" would be a feather in the cap of the Guthrie, which earlier this year made a national splash with its $2 million Tony Kushner festival.

And it would mark the regional introduction of Tricycle, a company known for using court testimony and verbatim transcripts to create what it calls "tribunal plays," and for tackling such hot-button issues as race relations and the conflict in Ireland.

The title "The Great Game" comes from novelist Rudyard Kipling, who used the phrase to refer to Afghanistan's place as a battleground for major powers.

The dozen plays in the cycle, all one-acts, were crafted by British and American playwrights. They deal with Western involvement in Afghanistan from 1842, when British troops were defeated in Kabul through the Soviet invasion of 1979 and beyond.

The plays in "The Great Game" come up to the present with Simon Stephens' "Canopy of Stars," which raises questions about the future.

In England, the plays were performed by a troupe of 15, presumably the same actors who would tour it in the U.S. Actors Equity, the stage actors' union, typically has not stood in the way of similar imported tours, such as the Ian McKellen-led "King Lear," or Ireland's Druid Theatre Company, which has played several times in the Twin Cities.

Dates, budgets and ticketing details for "The Great Game" have not been finalized. And the Guthrie is still in planning mode for the rest of its upcoming season.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390