Palace of the End: Leash Fatigue
Another play featuring Lynndie England
By Alexis Soloski
Wednesday, July 2nd 2008
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Carol Rosegg
Teri Lamm (left): Too smart to play Lynndie?
Details:
By Judith Thompson
Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
416 West 42nd Street
212-279-4200
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The Lynndie England section, entitled "My Pyramids," does provide a few surprises. Thompson takes an unexpectedly compassionate tone toward the woman, presenting England as a victim of the brutal U.S. military. Thompson even dares to toy a bit with audience sympathies, rendering England's character likable one moment and then having her refer to an Iraqi prisoner as a "monkey" the next. Under Daniella Topol's direction, Epic regular Teri Lamm makes a game run at the role, but she too often seems like an intelligent actress deliberately dumbing herself down. Sisto and Raffo, playing bright, articulate characters, don't face the same challenge, but neither are their orations as interesting. Sisto's tends toward the precious, while Raffo's, though moving, is rather too similar to portrayals she gave in her own show about Iraqi women, The Nine Parts of Desire.
I might feel more kindly toward Palace had I not already seen another Lynndie England play (Guardians), another Iraq drama directed by Topol (Sand), or any number of other plays with much the same concerns, several staged at the Culture Project. But as the war drags on, so too do the dramas about it.
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