The Palace Of the End Review

Palace of the End

Writer: Judith Thompson

Director: Jessica Swale

Theatre: Arcola Theater

Dates: 26^th October-20^th November

It is quite remarkable how much you could learn about a particular story if you could hear what people have to say when no one’s there to listen, to listen to their side of the story, what they’ve been through, what’s never been told, their own monologue. The play “Palace of the End” by Judith Thompson, a triptych of truly dramatic monologues, explores the most penetrating images of the Iraq War. An American female soldier, inspired by Lynndie England and played by Jade Williams, tries to clean herself from the shameful acts of abuse and torture that had taken place in the Abu Ghraib prison. The English weapons inspector Dr David Kelly, played by Robin Soans, is living his last moments expressing his anger and facing the consequences of sequenced and out of control lies. Finally, a mother from Baghdad, played by Imogen Smith, recounts the sufferings under Saddam and describes the tortures she and her children had been through by the secret police.

Throughout the play the audience’s consciousness experiences a feeling of awareness and awakening about the tragedy in Iraq and the cruel reality of war. Although the play’s theme is the Iraq war, the main and core idea seems to be the refusal of people to act in the right way from fear of consequences. Judith Thompson says through the mouth of her character, Dr David Kelly “I’m beginning to think that it’s the greatest sin of our time. Knowing and pretending that we don’t know, so that we won’t be inconvenienced in any way. I knew. Oh, the things I knew. And I did nothing.”  All three characters had their chance to do something but refused, whether that was to disobey commands, reveal the truth or speak. After all, knowledge is nothing without action.

On stage there was nothing but two cubic pieces of furniture made of mirrors, which were used as tables or chairs, and a tall tree trunk in the middle that reached the ceiling. At the back wall there was a large mirror that changed into lightings of different colors. Although I found the setting quite simple the play needed nothing more to get my full attention as I were totally submerged into the monologues. Thompson knows the craft of monologue very well and manages to keep the interest at the maximum the whole time. She uses everyday- life language that differs depending to each actor. The first monologue of the female soldier was in an American accent and included a lot of swearing as well. Dr Kelly in English accent and the mother from Bagdad with an Arabic accent had different language but shared the same tone of maturity and life experience. These three dimensional characters told their own story in a way that it felt personal and thus engaging. 

The Palace of the End is a complete work of three fully explored characters and situations of the Iraq war, written in such a way that touches the subject in a different, new and fresh angle making the audience realize the reality of a general theme,  the Iraq war in a more specific way through personal testimonies.