Written by multi-award-winning playwright Rajiv Joseph, and beautifully directed by Omar Elerian, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is the story of the struggle to find meaning in the aftermath of the brutal legacy of Saddam Hussein’s horrific regime, and is set in post-invasion Iraq in 2003.
Narrated by the Bengal tiger throughout, the tiger began as the only survivor in captivity at the zoo, surrounded by the ruins of the once great city of Baghdad. The lone tiger had accepted their starving fate when two clumsy U.S Marines (Tom and Kev) on guard patrol arrive, stumbling through the bombed rubble and find her, still locked in her cage but alive. Even a tiger in a zoo is affected by the consequence of war it seems.
Hyped up marine Tom (a perfect G.I looking Patrick Gibson) decides to taunt the tiger with an offer of a morsel of food, and the hungry tiger responds savagely by biting off Tom’s right hand. In the horror and panic, the more chaotic marine Kev (a powerful Arinzé Kene) shoots the tiger dead with a gold-plated hand gun that Tom had “liberated” (along with a gold-plated toilet seat) rumoured to have once belonged to Saddam Hussein’s equally ruthless son Uday. After losing his hand, Tom returns home to Michigan, leaving incapable marine Kev to cope with his post-war tour alone. And cope he does not.
After shooting him dead, the tiger returns as a ghost that only Kev can see, taunting him, persecuting him and adding to his guilt-written trauma of killing the tiger until he eventually descends into suicidal mania, just to make the overwhelming guilt stop. Now a ghost himself, Kev takes on the provoking of former friend Tom, mocking him for his greed of his golden treasures, and not being able to “get a girl”. As the saying goes, ghosts exist to haunt the living after all.
The tiger’s death changes her too. From avaricious predator discussing her penchant for eating small children, her ghost wanders the desecrated streets of Baghdad, asking philosophical questions such as “why am I here?” and pondering “if God truly exists, why do we have all this nonsense?”
Temporarily taken over the role of the tiger in place of David Threlfall due to illness; a diminutive Kathryn Hunter plays the incarcerated tiger with a weary, irascible and sarcastic manner, but her ghost tiger has purpose, confidence and wisecracks galore. She is larger than life, swearing constantly and circles the barren stage designed by Rajha Shakiry, as a tiger would circle their prey.
As events unfold, there is the realisation that all experiences are linked somehow. Tom and Kev previously worked with Musa, a gentle and subservient Iraqi Interpreter, who previously worked as a gardener for Uday Hussein, Saddam’s son. Musa (played with heart by Ammar Haj Ahmad) is dealing with the trauma of having witnessed Uday rape and murder his underage Sister, Hadia. Musa in turn is haunted by the ghost of Uday Hussein, shot 27 times, his bullets clear to see strewn across his back. Uday (a maniacal and menacing Sayyid Aki) swaggers onto stage with the dismissive arrogance of a dictator’s lauded son, swinging the severed head of his own brother to ridicule a devastated Musa, consumed with guilt for bringing his sister to view the topiary he’d created in the palace grounds, and ultimately into Uday’s predatory clutches.
After an embarrassing exchange involving Tom and an underage Iraqi girl, a once moralistic Musa asks Tom to help him to acquire some weapons to which Tom agrees, only to double cross him, using Musa to help Tom finally find Uday’s golden toilet seat, hidden in the desert, and the gold-plated gun, which had disappeared at the time of marine Kev’s unfortunate demise.
Musa pulls out the gold-plated gun and, in the chaos, Tom is killed, dying alone and exposed in the desert. Ultimately there are no winners in a war, and everybody loses.
When theatres across the country are offering feelgood Christmas shows and traditional family fun-filled pantomimes, the innovative Young Vic Theatre spearheads this darkly comic, seriously thought-provoking play, exposing the ramifications of war through life and death, forcing each character to confront their own demons, and conveying the immense human cost of victory.
“Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained” – The Duke of Wellington
Review by Miss Woo
When an atheist suddenly finds himself walking around after death, he has got some serious re-evaluating to do.
Iraq, well into the new millennium. A fast-talking Tiger haunts the streets, plagued by a fundamental question: “Why am I here?”
And he’s not the only one.
US forces have long since toppled Saddam Hussein, yet Baghdad remains aflame. In the chaos, the lives of American Marines Tom and Kev collide with Iraqi translator Musa after their chance encounters with the Tiger. Iraqi or American, man or beast, they are all searching for meaning, revenge, forgiveness, and a solid gold toilet seat that’s worth a fortune.
Director – Omar Elerian
Set & Costume Designer – Rajha Shakiry
Lighting Designer – Jackie Shemesh
Sound Designer – Elena Peña
Movement Director – Annie-Lunnette Deakin-Foster
Casting Director – Heather Basten CDG
Fight and Intimacy Director – Ruth Cooper-Brown of RC-Annie
Dialect Coach – Khaled Abunaama
Voice & Dialect Coach – Hazel Holder
Costume Supervisor – Male Arcucci
Hair & Make Up Supervisor – Sarah-Jane Pucci
Prop Supervisor – Kate Margretts
Jerwood Assistant Director – Layla Madanat
Associate Designer – Yimei Zhao
Additional Original Composition – Elena Peña
Production Therapist – Rukiya Jemmott
With Sayyid Aki, Patrick Gibson, Ammar Haj Ahmad, Kathryn Hunter, Arinzé Kene, Sara Masry, Hala Omran and David Threlfall.
BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO
Young Vic
2 December 2025 to 31 January 2026
