The Kite Runner is a vast and rich novel, spanning several countries and decades of personal and political history. But it’s a mistake to assume that what works on paper will work on stage.

While there are dozens of things that jar about Matthew Spangler’s adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s bestselling book, the biggest is its timidity. Spangler hasn’t so much adapted the book as faithfully rebuilt it in a theatre. All the key moments are played out just as they appear in print.

But while he’s word perfect on the lyrics, he fails to sing the tune. It’s a curiously soulless outcome for a story so riven with emotion.

Then there are the smaller irritations: the live percussion that starts off as an atmospheric motif and ends up being exhausting, and Ben Turner’s portentous and overwrought portrayal of the self-loathing protagonist Amir.

For an adaptation to work, it needs to add something else, something more, to what already exists. What we get instead is a lacklustre and painfully accurate retelling of a great novel, the essence of the original diluted and dulled. What a shame.