This ferociously funny drama, follows the intertwined lives of a quick-witted tiger, two homesick American marines, and a troubled Iraqi gardener as they roam the streets of war-torn Baghdad in search of meaning, redemption, and a toilet seat made of gold. Surreal and darkly humorous, it explores the madness of life in war as well as the power and the perils of human nature.
The tiger is a fabulous character in all senses. Her ghost haunts Kev, the remaining marine, who is consequently deemed to be insane. Tom, returning from surgery in the US with a bionic hand, is motivated less by a desire to reunite with his erstwhile buddy, Kev, than to retrieve two treasured possessions. There’s a lot of laughter at the notion of the gold-plated revolver, looted from Hussein’s presidential palace as there is for the equally absurd notion of Hussein’s gold-plated toilet seat. But they are devices which are in danger of being overworked in the play, used increasingly for easy laughs.
The pace is baggy and the tragedy is diffuse, its drama undercut by cerebral questioning. The production’s most enraged moments are downplayed when it could go for the jugular. But the high-wire mix of comedy, horror and intellectualism is brave, the imagination and profundity a breath of fresh air in a theatrical landscape that cleaves to easy entertainment and distraction from darkness. Joseph stares into the Nietzschean abyss, sniggering, and it sniggers back.
| 2011 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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