Since its revival in 2002 the National Theatre Company has staged some 10 performances a year, including a number of moralistic short plays in a slapstick style by Afghan writers. Partly because of the lack of performance space one of the most popular performance styles is currently a one-man ‘monodrama’ involving a lone actor talking about his war experiences.

The provincial theatre companies in Mazar, Herat, Jalalabad, Kunduz and Faryab have also recently been revived. They perform plays about life in Afghanistan and moralistic tales to educate the youth in the traditional life and culture for television and in community halls, though each operate independently in their own locations, with very little contact with the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs Theatre Department in Kabul.