Just when I thought the great Kathryn Hunter had done it all, acting-wise, she plays the ghost of a grouchy tiger looking for God on the burning streets of Baghdad during the Iraq War in 2003. In vagabond clothes, the diminutive, powerhouse actress imbues the spectral beast with huge personality, despite reading some of her lines from a screen, having taken over the part from a poorly David Threlfall at late notice.
Her tiger cranks out random noise on an electric guitar, cites Dante and muses on the ethics of eating children and the redemptive benefits of going vegetarian. Remarkably, this is not the strangest thing about Rajiv Joseph’s unhinged study of conflict, human cruelty and belief, which is baggy and meandering but full of bold themes and imagery. Based on a real event in the war, the play was a hit in LA in 2009 and on Broadway in 2011 and receives a welcome European premiere here. It’s brutal, hilariously serious and utterly compelling, directed with the itchy feel of a nightmare by Omar Elerian.
