Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo: ‘funny, profound, must-see theatre’

In the Young Vic’s big opening for December, the “talking ghost of a tiger haunts the streets of the battle-ravaged Iraqi capital while ruminating on the nature of existence”, said Dzifa Benson in The Telegraph. That sounds like a tough sell. And Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer-nominated play – originally staged on Broadway with Robin Williams as the tiger – has taken 14 years to cross the Atlantic.

But in the capable hands of director Omar Elerian, and featuring an astonishing central performance from Kathryn Hunter, this multi-layered and “engrossing” tragi-comedy about the absurdities of war proves to be “funny, profound, must-see theatre”.

Joseph’s “madly surreal” and “quietly humane” play is based on a real event, said Sarah Hemming in the Financial Times. In 2003, a starving Bengal tiger in Baghdad’s zoo was shot by an American soldier after it mauled his comrade’s hand. The playwright takes this as his jumping-off point for an incident-light drama in which the tiger prowls the burning city, haunting its killer and looking for God. The main (human) characters are Kev and Tom, the two US soldiers, and an Iraqi man, Musa, who used to work as a gardener for Saddam Hussein’s sadistic son, Uday – and who is now acting as an interpreter for the invading forces.

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The play gets “over-entangled in its philosophising in places”. But Hunter, who stepped into the role at the last minute to replace the unwell David Threlfall, is “superb” – and Elerian’s production “spins on a dime between terrifying violence, quiet reflection and mordant humour”.

“This will undoubtedly be a Marmite show,” said Nick Curtis in The London Standard. I found it “wickedly funny”, and the boldness of its imagery made it possible for me to forgive its bagginess. Joseph, it is fair to say, “makes little concession to normal audience expectations of coherence. But for me this seems a work of massive swings, almost all of which connect with profound force.” I fell on the other side of the fence, said Dominic Maxwell in The Times. Hunter seizes her moment with the “aplomb of an acerbic stand-up comic”, and there are some “nice lines”. But “mostly, this is Beckettian milling about by desperate people in a ruined world. A strong theatrical flavour, in short, and not one for me.”

Young Vic, London SE1. Until 31 January