Review: 'Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo' at the Kirk Douglas Theatre

 

Two U.S. soldiers out of their depths in war-torn Baghdad, an Iraqi topiary artist-turned-translator for the coalition forces, the ghost of Uday Hussein (toting the decapitated head of his brother Qusay), a teenage prostitute wearing a disco head scarf, a friendly leper whose colony has been reduced to rubble, and a big cat that becomes a kind of moral philosopher after it's shot for biting the American hand that's trying to feed it.

No, it’s not your ordinary dramatis personae, but then Rajiv Joseph’s “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo,” which had its world premiere Sunday at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, is no ordinary play. I’m tempted to call it the most original drama written so far about the Iraq war, but why sell the work short? The imagination behind it is way too thrillingly genre-busting to be confined within such a limiting category.

An ebullient synthesizer of world data, Joseph is not just alert to the fevered geopolitical madness surrounding us, he’s also endlessly inventive in finding bold theatrical metaphors to depict the extent of the depravity. “Bengal Tiger” marks the breakthrough of a major new playwriting talent. Attending the opening gave me a sense of what it must have been like to be in London when Caryl Churchill burst on the scene at the Royal Court in the 1970s. I’d like to find analogies closer to home, but it’s not easy to come up with an American comparison whose liberated stage vocabulary similarly blends acute social commentary with tragicomic mayhem.

Before delving into the play, let’s give some well-deserved credit to Moisés Kaufman, whose direction allows us to appreciate both the wonderful comic audacity and diffuse sensitivity of Joseph’s style. Kaufman, a playwright himself (his “33 Variations” received a Tony nomination for best play this season), was an inspired choice. And his vibrant staging, which features atmospheric sets of Middle Eastern hues and accents by Derek McLane, and a versatile ensemble cast precisely locate Joseph’s newfound theatrical ZIP Code.

“Bengal Tiger” begins shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. Tom (Glenn Davis) and Kev (Brad Fleischer) are standing guard at, of all places, the Baghdad Zoo. American bombs have freed the lions, which quickly discover they're not the kings of this militarized jungle. A lone tiger (Kevin Tighe), grumbling and profane, recaps the recent chaos, as Tom shows off a golden gun he nabbed from Uday Hussein’s Midas stash, which also included a priceless toilet seat that Tom plans to use as a post-Iraq annuity. “Sitting pretty on a gold toilet seat!” Kev parrots with slacker inanity.

Real-life absurdity outstrips anything a dramatist could come up with, but Joseph deploys these you-got-to-be-kidding actualities with purposeful ingenuity. When Kev winds up shooting the tiger with the James Bond pistol after it mauls Tom, the animal steps out of its cage and enters into a limbo in which the meaninglessness of death is there to be meditated on the way Beckett’s characters take up the irrationality of life. Joseph’s play suggests that in the current age, the question isn’t about finding the will to go on living but rather acquiring the stamina to contend with so much senseless dying.

The slaughtered tiger, a self-described “Dante in Hades,” ends up haunting Kev, who’s like a Cuisinart of American slang, pop culture and sentimentality. But there’s another figure of even more predatory ferocity that refuses to stay buried. Musa (Arian Moayed), the military translator who used to majestically turn shrubbery into animal forms, is dogged by the ghost of Uday (Hrach Titizian), who raped and mutilated his sister, Hadia (Sheila Vand), as she was admiring her brother's artistry in the palace garden.

If there’s any equivocation in my admiration for Joseph’s handling of this extraordinarily daring field of characters, it has to do with the manner in which Musa’s story — the tale of an artistic soul trapped in a globally manufactured hell — is brought to a resolution. Tired, he says, of serving tyrants — first Uday, then the U.S. military — he winds up in a standoff with Tom, who has returned to Iraq with a prosthetic hand and a determination to retrieve his plundered gold. 

Tensions rise between the two men when Musa is asked to translate between Tom and a teen prostitute (also played by Vand). The scene awakens Musa’s horrific memory of his sister’s tragedy, but not even our existentialist feline can do more than blow hot air at a plot that's ultimately as lunatic as the occupying situation.  

But don’t let this dissuade you from experiencing this groundbreaking drama, which is animated by a top-notch cast with breathtaking vitality. Davis’ slick yet not insensitive Tom, Fleischer’s endearingly stupefied Kev, Titizian’s debauchedly murderous Uday, and Moayed’s grief-strafed Musa color in Joseph’s portrait of a war zone that extends beyond the borders of one ravaged nation. 

“Bengal Tiger” allows us to see the way the causes and consequences of modern brutality are as restless and far-ranging as any frequent-flier ghost. 
   
-- Charles McNulty

"Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo," Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Ends June 7. $20 to $45 (213) 628-2772. Running time: 2 hours.

Top photo: Brad Fleischer, Kevin Tighe and Glenn Davis. Bottom photo: Arian Moayed (bottom) and Hrach Titizian (top)  Credit: Ringo H.W. Chiu / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Fred Bape]

I was blown away by the play's authenticity. It pulled no punches, laying bare all of the reverberating insanity we unleashed in Iraq.

It also gave a haunting, yet fascinating, glimpse of the madness that is post-traumatic stress syndrome.

W, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al should be forced to see it.

[Sandy Rosen]

War pushes us past the line of right and wrong into the realm of insanity. The play defines this region well but fails to do so with any semblance of order. Perhaps these ideas are juxtaposed to begin with but an audience needs guidance to journey through a story and arrive at a desired conclusion. This missed that mark.

[Rosa W.]

A brilliant show. Mr. Joseph has a long, award-filled future ahead of him. Beautiful writing, spot-on performances and a great choice for the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Bravo to Center Theatre Group!

[SJ]

The subject matter is the type of show I want to support in the American theater. The playwright is young, and I hope he has a long career. But if I had read the review above before seeing the show, I would have been very disappointed in what I actually saw on stage. To infer that this show is in any way comparable to Caryll Churchill's work is mind-boggling--a bizarre analogy on the part of the reviewer which does a disservice to Joseph and Churchill--and to potential audience-goers as well.

[pari Saedi]

it was a fantastic show that i have seen in my life.

[frances speilberg]

this is a gripping play - the first I've seen about the Iraq War. It gives a comprehensive protrayal of the stupidity, villainy, and intense effects of the brutality and senselessness of this war that seems to be going on forever

[Achamma Chandersekaran]

Congratulaions, Rajiv. We are all proud of you!

Looking forward to your award-filled days.

[Andrea R]

Charles McNulty is off the mark with his review. If I had read this review before going to the theatre I would have been very confused. The play needs more conflict and basic story telling elements. I was bored. It was beautiful, but I was bored.
Here's a better review:
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117940299.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[marc]

A very good play... after seeing Center Theater Group's "Taking Over" which was tarnished by the most appalling and blatent left wing racism... I almost did not go to this play. The only good white person in "Taking Over" was a dead white person-- apparently. And we got to hear how silly and rotten "they are" not once but probably around 20 times. "Taking Over" became the victim of its own hypocritical pathologies and propaganda.

But this play hit the ball out of the park... a very good play... terrific actors... human themes...timely subject...flawless performances... good... very good.

[Brenda K of The Panache Orchestra]

I just saw Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo at the Mark Taper Forum this evening and LOVED IT!! I found it much milder than I expected after reading this review, which seemed odd. It didn’t take me long, however, to realize that the reason why is because the dialog and action in the play is strikingly similar to what plays out in my house every day (particularly the night raid scene), so I am desensitized to the unbridled insanity of it. Suffice it to say that Pulp Fiction has nothing on Bengal Tiger! I couldn’t believe there were so few people in the audience for such a strong show. The players did an excellent job of telling that story. Where did the promotional effort fall short?

[someone]

I saw this play this afternoon.

Then I went back to my car and cried for about an hour.

That's all I can say about it.

[ziggy]

The title of this play should be "The Emperors New Clothes."
Yes the subject matter is compelling but the story telling, characters, and dialogue are extremely unsophisticated.
This is a basic case of the literary axiom: don't tell me show me. For example. A character repeating several times "I'M AN ARTIST!" Yeah that's beautiful but what are we to do with this information? Another example is characters talking to god and questioning his existance. Do I really need to sit in the theater and have actors telling me god may not exist. Old news...that's been disected in literature from the greeks on. What have I learned from this play. War is hell, god has foresaken us...sorry but I was UNMOVED. It seems because a Middle Eastern playwright wrote a play about war and made all the characters dispicable and the actors whine for 2 hours it must be art. WRONG.