Afghanistan Is Not Funny by Henry Naylor | Adelaide Fringe 2022 review

This is a great show full of laughs, drama and pathos, punctuated by telling photographs of an already ruined Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is Not Funny by Henry Naylor.

Afghanistan Is Not Funny

Theatre

Rating: *****

The Studio at Holden St Theatres

Until March 13

Henry Naylor has clearly struggled with his original, flippant take on the Afghan War, 20 years ago. You can’t fault his research though, spending a hair-raising time there with photographer Sam Maynard in 2002. As he once lamely tried to explain to an unimpressed Afghan war lord after the duo were captured in a field of burned out tanks, he was researching material for a comedy for the Edinburgh Fringe. He was sure it would earn five stars.

They survived through a remarkable coincidence. And Naylor’s “dark comedy” was a five-star hit in Edinburgh in 2003, and segued into a film pitch with Hugh Grant on board as the lead actor.

But the project was out of whack, the disasters of Afghanistan too great, and it lapsed.

In 2022, with the help of Adelaide’s Martha Lott as his director, Naylor is actively seeking a suitable protagonist for this more considered version. It may be the young Afghan woman, bearing a terrifying bundle, and walking slowly, defiantly towards him, her accusatory stare caught by Maynard’s photograph.

This is a great show full of laughs, drama and pathos, and punctuated by Maynard’s telling photographs of an already ruined Afghanistan all those years ago, projected on a rear screen.

Henry Naylor still has to deal with some ghosts of war, 20 years later, and it is right that we all feel uncomfortable at the end.