Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

I just finished reading the new play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. The new play by Rajiv Joseph.

How to describe...hard to answer so I'll do my best in a brief synopsis. It is set in Baghdad in 2003. Two Marines are guarding an old, but hungry tiger. After taunting him, the tiger bites off the hand of one of the Marines (Tom) and the other mortal wounds the tiger.

Kev is then haunted by the tiger, who can speak. The tiger after dying is enlightened, but plague by his own guilt.

Tom is given a prosethic hand and visits Kev, the other Marine, who is now hospitalized after having a break-down. Tom wants his gold plated gun back, but by this time Kev doesn't have it.

Kev kills himself because he's feeling guilty about a lot of things.

There is an interpreter -Musa. He is haunted by the ghost of Uday Hussain, who walks around carrying his brother Usay's head. Musa ends up with the gold plated gun. By the way, Musa is feeling guilty about bringing his sister to the garden where he works, because Uday and Usay attack her there and Musa kills her.

Eventually, Musa takes Tom out to a lepers' colony where he kills Tom and leave him to die.

This isn't a play for those who are faint of heart or don't like hearing the f-bomb dropped every couple of lines. There isn't one truth,but many it is what each individual takes away themselves.

I liked the play; I wasn't overly fond of some of the choices, but I think there is more truth than fiction. I don't think this is probably a play that will be a hit in community theatres, but I can see regional theatres doing this and being successful.

This play was nominated for a 2010 Pulitzer Prize.