Top NavTop NavTop Nav

US military could learn from "The Great Game"

Great Game poster

Great Game poster

  • February 8, 2011 5:15am

Public Radio International (PRI) interviewed Cal State East Bay President Mohammad Qayoumi for "The World", a one-hour, weekday global radio news magazine. The subject matter was "The Great Game," a series of short plays about foreign involvement in Afghanistan.

"The Great Game" was first staged in London then traveled to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre where Qayoumi interviewed the show's famed director, Indhu Rubasingham, as part of the theatre's "Page to Stage" series.

Read blog.

Now, the show is being performed for the Pentagon. US Brigadier General John Nicholson saw "The Great Game" and raved about it to his Pentagon colleagues. Pentagon brass, Afghan war veterans, and some presidential advisors on Afghanistan are on the list to attend the February performance.

Qayoumi told PRI, "It's not only looking at the issue from the lives of the Afghans, who have taken the brunt of the suffering for the last three decades, but it is also humanizes the soldier, whether a Soviet soldier in Afghanistan, a NATO force, or whatever."  He said he thinks the military could learn a lot. "I hope the play can trigger more dialogue and a deeper understanding of the issues," though he added that the play alone can't do it all.

PRI's "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.

KL

© California State University, East Bay. All Rights Reserved.