SOURCE: Phelan, Peggy. Review of Homebody/Kabul, by Tony Kushner. Theatre Journal 55, no. 1 (March 2003): 166-68.

In the following review, Phelan compares productions of Homebody/Kabul staged in New York and in Berkeley, California. Phelan asserts that the first act of the play is stronger than the second act.

Tony Kushner's Homebody/Kabul was the winner of the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner award for best play of 2001. Kushner began writing Homebody/Kabul about three years before “Taliban,” “Northern Alliance,” “burqa,” and “Afghanistan” became the lingua franca of denizens of the United States. Indelibly linked now with the events of 9/11/01, Kushner's play has been widely declared “eerily prescient.” To his credit, Kushner dismisses this hype: “I'm not psychic. If you choose to write about current events there's a good chance you will find the events you've written about to be … well, current” (Homebody/Kabul. TCG 2002: 146). Kushner recognizes that plays must have...