England’s Dreaming | Nadien Chu brings unexpected empathy to Abu Ghraib poster girl Lynndie England in Palace of the End.
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Directed by Marianne Copithorne. Written by Judith Thompson. Starring Nadien Chu, Natascha Girgis, John Wright. The Roxy (10708-124 St). To Nov 16. Tickets available through the Theatre Network box office (453-2440).
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A dying child’s body swings from a torture cell’s ceiling fan. His pregnant mother watches as she is raped by Saddam Hussein’s officers.
A teenaged Iraqi girl is raped with a bayonet and shot in the head by American soldiers.
A soft-spoken Iraqi prisoner is tortured and humiliated by American troops. The ringleader? A 23-year-old girl from West Virginia, who leads her charge around Abu Ghraib prison leashed at the neck like a dog.
These are some of the images from Theatre Network’s unsettling new production of by Judith Thompson.
consists of three monologues, each reflecting a different perspective on the atrocities of the Iraq war: in turn we meet Lynndie England (Nadien Chu), WMD expert Dr. David Kelly (John Wright), and Iraqi torture survivor Nehrjas Al Saffarh (Natascha Girgis).
With the unholy trinity of George Bush, Tony Blair, and Saddam Hussein serving as a backdrop, Thompson’s play is highly critical of the foreign occupation of Iraq and continually shocks the audience with horrible, intimate details of war: the smile on the face of a tortured child, the entertainment value of the Abu Ghraib atrocities, and the sad, slow demise of a brilliant man. The first two monologues vilify the American and British involvement in Iraq, while the third is an attempt at redemption, pointing out the horrors of Saddam’s regime and the necessity for change. Euphemisms like “regime change” are bandied about, but Thompson leaves us with the knowledge all that changes is the colour of the torturer’s uniform.
Thompson has never been one to shy away from challenging work. In previous plays like Lion in the Streets and I Am Yours, she confronted humiliation, abuse, and desperation; goes even further, places these themes in an international context. It is a delight to see a Canadian playwright move beyond regional kitchen-sink drama and take on international issues. Despite the odd Quebec joke (and who doesn’t like to laugh at Quebec?), is a bold step forward for Canadian drama, confronting issues important to the world stage.
And this multilayered production, directed by Marianne Copithorne, does the work justice. Chu gives a strong performance as the much-maligned Lynndie England, the American soldier convicted of committing “indecent acts” against Abu Ghraib prisoners. Despite a West Virginian dialect that occasionally migrates north, Chu is solid and surprisingly disarming in her role. We don’t want to like England, but at times we can’t help ourselves.
It’s impossible for veteran actor John Wright to give a poor performance, and as Kelly, the suicidal weapons specialist, he is a sad, strange victim of his country’s involvement in the so-called War on Terror. But it’s Natascha Girgis who gives possibly the show’s most heartbreaking performance as Nehrjas, a woman who survived Saddam’s torture only to die in Desert Storm. Her superlative portrayal of this woman, along with her pitch-perfect Arabic dialect, is so moving, so tender that it’s hard not to already be thinking of next year’s Sterling nods.
The only off note in the production is a somewhat confining set, and Copithorne’s strange decision to place the actors behind a scrim that distances the audience from the action. The characters speak directly to the audience and the scrim does nothing but get in the way.
is not exactly a fun night out, but it is a challenging play that shocks, disturbs, and unsettles our Western notions of the “good guy.” And it forces us to bear witness to the horrors of war: in the words of Thompson’s David Kelly, “It is a terrible thing to ask, I know. But I am asking, because I don’t want to be alone.”
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