{"id":246144,"date":"2013-05-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-24T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/roaming-the-scorched-earth\/"},"modified":"2013-05-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-05-24T07:00:00","slug":"roaming-the-scorched-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/roaming-the-scorched-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Roaming the scorched earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/strong>Enigmatic and exciting, ion\u2019s \u201cTiger\u201d is not to be missed<\/p>\n

By Charlene Baldridge |SDUN Theater Critic<\/p>\n

Whether one traveled to Los Angeles to see Rajiv Joseph\u2019s 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated \u201cBengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo\u201d is immaterial vis-\u00e0-vis the production encountered now through June 2 at ion theatre company.<\/p>\n

\"(l<\/a>
(l to r) Evan Kendig, Linda Permenter and Jake Rosko (Courtesy ion theatre)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An expansive playing area is unnecessary. There may be two topiaries instead of a half dozen or more; Uday Hussein\u2019s palace may exist mainly in the mind\u2019s eye, and so does the vastness of the desert in the play\u2019s final scene. The expanse of thought and the impact and humanity of the play\u2019s characters are embraced fully in the tiny theater at Sixth and Penn.<\/p>\n

Fully understanding Joseph\u2019s meaning and intent may be impossible; this land, its people, the jolting presence of Americans, and the gruesome conditions of the scorched city are presented to us through the haunting presence of a verbose Tiger who walks on two legs, declares tigers are atheists by nature, and then proceeds to look for God to enquire why he was made with such a hungry nature and why he is still abroad.<\/p>\n

The Tiger (played by a scruffy Ron Choularton) is killed in the first scene by a yahoo American GI named Kev (Evan Kendig). Kev shoots it dead because the caged animal bit off the hand of his equally stupid buddy, Tom (Jake Rosko). Both these young actors are impressive.<\/p>\n

The Tiger looks down at his lifeless body and says, \u201cSo that\u2019s what I looked like,\u201d then launches into philosophical discourse that continues intermittently until blackout. Choularton\u2019s splendidly portrayed Tiger is caught up in the existential question. He may not find his answer, even walking free, but his questions are wondrous; that is, if one\u2019s mind allows ghosts to roam the scorched earth.<\/p>\n

The Tiger is not the only ghost in Joseph\u2019s play: their numbers increase as time goes by. The others once passed for human; the least humane being Uday Hussein (Claudio Raygoza, who also directs the play), who was Saddam Hussein\u2019s despotic and privileged son.<\/p>\n

Tom slew Uday with his own gold-plated gun, which was in turn used by Kev to kill the Tiger. Eventually the gun falls into the hands of Kev\u2019s Iraqi translator, Musa (an amazing performance by Brian Abraham), who is much more than he seems. Musa\u2019s sister, Hadia, is portrayed beautifully by Linda Permenter. Olivia Ruiz plays the other Iraqi women.<\/p>\n

Abraham, Permenter and Ruiz, who were coached by Raida Fahmi and Ammar Ramzi, speak long stretches of Arabic with seemingly native facility, just an example of the care lavished upon the work by ion.<\/p>\n

S. Todd Muffatti created the topiary animals. Melanie Chen is responsible for sound; Andrea Fields, for properties; Karin Filijan, for lighting; Brian Redfern for the set; and Courtney Fox Smith, for costumes.<\/p>\n

Immense praise must go to Raygoza for his villainous Uday, for his meticulous, seamless direction and the assembly of a stunning ensemble, and for the guts it took to tackle the \u201cTiger\u201d in the first place. Do not miss this enigmatic and absorbing work. Take along your suspension of disbelief and do not expect CNN.<\/p>\n

\u201cBengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo\u201d<\/strong>
\nWHERE: ion theatre company, 3704 Sixth Ave. (Hillcrest)<\/strong>
\nWHEN: Thurs. \u2013 Sat at 8 p.m., and Sat. at 4 p.m. through June 1<\/strong>
\nINFO: 619-600-5020<\/strong>
\nWEB: iontheatre.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Enigmatic and exciting, ion\u2019s \u201cTiger\u201d is not to be missed By Charlene Baldridge |SDUN Theater Critic Whether one traveled to Los Angeles to see Rajiv Joseph\u2019s 2010 Pulitzer Prize-nominated \u201cBengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo\u201d is immaterial vis-\u00e0-vis the production encountered now through June 2 at ion theatre company.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":246145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Roaming the scorched earth","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}