Gruesome Playground Injuries; Animals Out of Paper; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo: Three Plays

It's extremely difficult to find an author's collection with such consistently good work. Every playwright has their duds, but if Rajiv Joseph has any, they're not here. The book itself, is light and very easy to read, but it's really the plays that make it so special.I performed Gruesome Playground Injuries as Doug last year and the play captured my imagination completely. I had read it before auditioning and found it to be a completely engaging read. Quick, easy, and memorable. Doug and Kayleen's relationship is so beautiful and easy to relate to that I defy anybody to feel like the story does not apply to them. It's a story that the audience (and the reader) will absolutely care about. Doug, particularly, is a character you instantly fall in love with, which makes the rest of the story so terribly crushing. Kayleen isn't quite as loveable, but you recognize and empathize with her pain. Joseph does a wonderful job of morphing his characters throughout their youth and adulthood. It was a complete pleasure to not only perform this play, but read it as well. It's my favorite of the three.Animals Out of Paper is more traditionally written. Gruesome jumps around, but Animals Out of Paper is one fluid story. All three characters are incredibly well-written. The story is engaging start to finish and you feel for and understand every single character. There are some great monologues for men and women here and this is definitely worth the read.Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo is probably the most abstract of the three, but once the concept clicks for you, it's a wonderful trip from there on out. The Tiger is wonderfully crafted, mixing all the facets of the human condition. In the same sentence, he can display his fearlessness and his apprehension about the unknown that he has just entered. He has great monologues, too. The other characters are just as entertaining (Especially Saddam Hussein's sons) The play is also beautiful in its cultural immersion. I love that Rajiv wrote out the arabic characters, phonetic pronunciation, and English translation. He's a marvelous writer and writes his plays to be read and performed.Overall, this edition makes it clear that Rajiv Joseph is a frontrunner young playwright of our generation. He will be remembered and performed for years to come. Buy the book, you won't be disappointed.

The gem in this collection of three Rajiv Joseph plays is "Bengal Tiger in the Baghdad Zoo," a marvelously theatrical script in an era when most U.S. playwrights are consumed with naturalistic portrayals of family problems in America. He's a brave writer, willing to create discomfort in audiences to make us confront difficult truths. In discussing how he came to write what he rightly calls a "surrealist" play, he recalls how he first heard of the event that became the springboard for his story: "When I read the article, I was touched by the tiger's death in a way I couldn't locate. I thought it was a tragic thing, which was strange because there were far worse things going on [in Iraq] at the time."The play is based on an actual event -- the killing of the tiger in the Baghdad zoo following the U.S. invasion -- but the most interesting structural aspect of the script is that Joseph makes the tiger the narrator who leads us through the world of violence that was (and is) Iraq. (For more on this use of narrators, see  Playwriting Seminars 2.0: A Handbook on the Art and Craft of Dramatic Writing with an Introduction to Screenwriting .) Using a narrator is a common device, but in this case after the tiger is killed, he becomes a ghost-narrator interacting with both the living and the dead in addition to us in the audience. The message of the play -- the way extreme violence affects and changes people -- is emotionally compelling, but also highly complex: the tiger at one point calls to God, demanding to know how He could make the tiger a predator and then punish him for being one.The tiger is not the only predator among these characters -- and there is a sense of the law of the jungle operating within the play's action. It's a gripping read, perhaps even more so than when staged. And Joseph is a playwright to watch with anticipation for his next plays.

I bought this book based solely on the fact I wanted to read Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. When I was living in L.A. years ago, I remember a buzz going around town about this play. That's pretty impressive, considering L.A. is movie town.Bengal Tiger has everything. It will make you think, laugh, cry, squirm... you name it.Bengal Tiger also gets into politics. The play focuses on the Iraq War and some of the questions that should've been asked by both governments.The characters are very colorful. In order for a play to be successful, you need to have uneven characters. Bengal Tiger accomplishes that.

Extremely well crafted, each play keeps you interested while evoking debate and discussion. I finished each really having a sense of the characters, able to understand their perspectives. Life is complicated, right and wrong get blurred, and this is captured in these plays. People make mistakes and try to figure out how to move forward in an engaging and interesting way. I found I could relate, or at the very least, appreciate, the viewpoint and actions of each character and finished each play thinking about what I just read and what would I have done in those situations. Thought-provoking. Highly recommend.

"Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo" officially tops "Dead Man's Cell Phone" for weirdest play I've read. All three of Joseph's works are compelling, beautiful, and really funny to read. I've seen "Gruesome Playground Injuries" and it's such a powerful and slightly hopeless look into a weirdly crafted friendship. I'm actually doing am monologue from Andy in Animals Out of Paper, because I connect with him so well!

The play ‘Bengal tiger’ was the only one I read.

He should have won the Pulitzer Prize; incredibly text. He’s a genius. Best modern drama in a long time. Must read

A great look at the effects a war can have on the human condition. This play is moving, funny, and well paced.

A collection of Rajiv Joseph's stageplays that provides a good overview over this playwright's work. I really enjoyed the read.