The Stage Club’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo: Review
PUBLISHED November 4th, 2015 02:00 am | UPDATED July 25th, 2024 03:04 pm
Rajiv Joseph’s ‘Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo’ was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2010 and it’s not hard to understand why. Through the lens of the play, we, as the audience, are called to confront the atrocities and absurdities that loom large in the wake of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. Joseph’s vision of the chaos plays out in minute everyday realities, beginning with the two American soldiers, Kevin and Tom, who are assigned to stand guard over a tiger trapped in a cage.
As the two men trade war-time stories and heroics, the tiger joins in, giving the audience his own take on how the war has invaded his animal kingdom as well. Throughout the play, the intertwine of man and beast with that of life and death make for astute commentary on the eternal search for freedom – albeit with its duplicity, the pitfalls of human nature, and the possible existence of the afterlife.
Nick Perry was stunning in his role as the tiger – fielding offhand comments and questions in a conversational tone that belied their wisdom; case in point: ‘die younger; die with your friends’. Mitchell Lagos and Zachary Ibrahim also enjoyed great chemistry as Tom and Kevin, and were believable as once-upon-a-time war buddies who later feuded over the supposed prize of a gold-gun.
Overall, I found it a daring portrayal of war in all its glory and shame, highlighting the insidiousness of violence hidden in ourselves and the real propensity for contagion that precipitates such events. In a play that is increasingly inhabited with ghosts with each passing scene, we are forced to come face-to-face with the legacy of violence that overwhelmingly characterises the Hussein regime as well as the American invasion that sought to end it. In this modern society, how apt it is for us to reflect upon the indelible ironies that surround each and every violent act that we see all around us today.
The Stage Club’s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo happened from Wednesday, 14 October to Saturday, 17 October at the DBS Arts Centre.
