by Lucy Allen
If you go to see Alumnae Theatre’s Palace of the End, don’t expect to leave feeling happy. The effectively staged show will leave you more than a little devastated. Thankfully, I knew what to expect from a Judith Thompson play.
Thompson’s play is a collection of three monologues, each focusing on different aspects of the war in Iraq. The three stories, told by a pregnant soldier (Laura Vincent), a weapons expert (Christopher Kelk) and an Iraqi mother (Sochi Fried) are all based on real people, making the stories that much more haunting and potent.
The show is incredibly well put together. All actors are involved in the monologues, whether by speaking them or supporting them from the background. One of my favourite uses of this was having two of the actors be trees, swaying in the background, giving a real sense of place.
