; Fun! Fun! Vancouver!: Palace of the End

Friday 22 May 2009

Palace of the End

I'm 2 for 2 so far! That is, 2 good plays one after the other this week! As well, this play, Palace of The End, was the second play I've seen at the PAL Theatre located on the top floor of an apartment building in Coal Harbour. And like the other production I saw at PAL, this too was excellent, so I'm 2 for 2 on that as well!



Palace of The End is a heavy piece, made up of 3 distinct monologues based on the true life stories of 3 people. The first one was my favourite - the female soldier who was photographed making fun of Iraqui prisoners. The actress who played her did a PHENOMENAL job! Her part was engaging, interesting, well-written, humorous, sad, moving, and downright amazing.

The second monologue belonged to a British weapons instructor, who was the one to reveal to the world that there were indeed no weapons of mass destruction to be found. His bit was somewhat boring, mainly because he didn't get to move around much on stage and there weren't enough points of humour to keep the audience going. With three heavy monologues to sit through, I needed a bit more variation within each of them to keep me interested. I couldn't wait for his part to be over.

Finally, the third monologue was just as good as the 1st one, that being an Iraqui woman who was tortured by Saddam Hussein during the 70s for being a Communist, and then later killed during the war when an American bomb blew up her home. Her performance was elegant, precise, poised, sweet, sad, startling, and methodic.

Definitely worth seeing, so go check it out! I was fortunate enough to go to the Free Preview last night. Free theatre, with this calibre? You really can't go wrong. Palace of The End runs until June 6, and there is a 2 For 1 showing on Saturday night (tomorrow)!

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