By Samantha Ellis. Introduced by Qais Akbar Omar.

In Kabul in 2005, after the defeat of the Taliban, German-Syrian actress and director Corinne Jaber worked hard to achieve what many thought was an impossible task: to bring together a company of Afghan actors to stage a Dari production of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. Revolutionary things happen in rehearsal - male and female actors appear on the same stage, make eye contact, become friends, and even talk frankly about love, but are plagued by fears that Afghanistan hasn't really changed that much. The Taliban are making death threats against the actresses.

Could this one production really, as one actor vowed, "challenge the whole country"?

Based on the book 'A Night in the Emperor's Garden' by Stephen Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar.

Corinne ..... Amita Dhiri
Qais ..... Nima Taleghani
Nabi ..... Philip Arditti
Parwin ..... Nathalie Armin
Breshna ..... Géhane Strehler
Marina ..... Sarah Agha
Kabir ..... Paul Chahidi
Shahla ..... Jumaan Short
Tawab ..... Mustafa Aryan
Music by Milad Yousofi
Sound design by Alisdair McGregor
Directed by Jeremy Mortimer
Executive Producer Joby Waldman

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3. Show less