Palace of the End

Last updated

Palace of the End is a play by Judith Thompson, that consists of three monologues telling tales related to Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The first two are based on real people Lynndie England and David Kelly and the third is fictional. [1] Palace of the End was published in 2007 by Playwrights Canada Press.

Contents

The play ran in Los Angeles in 2007, at Canadian Stage Company in Toronto in 2008, [2] at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 2008 [3] at the Frank Theatre Studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2009 [4] and at the Arcola Theatre in London in 2010. [1] It won the 2007–08 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize [5] and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Awards at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [6]

The monologues

The monologue’s titles are "My Pyramids", "Harrowdown Hill", and "Instruments of Yearning".

“My Pyramids” refers to the Abu Ghraib human pyramids. The speaker is Lynndie England, the United States Army reservist who become the face of the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse, and who is said to have made prisoners form human pyramids. [3]

"Harrowdown Hill" refers to the place where the body of Dr. David Kelly was found a few weeks after he confessed to a journalist that he had lied about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Kelly was a British weapons inspector in Iraq. [3]

"Instruments of Yearning" refers to the Jihaz al-Haneen, the secret police of the Ba'ath Party who detained fictional character Nehrjas Al Saffarh, an Iraqi communist, in 1963. Saffarh survived but was killed during United States bombing in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib prison</span> 1950s–2014 prison in central Iraq

Abu Ghraib prison was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located 32 kilometers (20 mi) west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison. From the 1970s, the prison was used by Saddam Hussein to hold political prisoners and later the United States to hold Iraqi prisoners. It developed a reputation for torture and extrajudicial killing, and was closed in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janis Karpinski</span> Retired United States Army officer (born 1953)

Janis Leigh Karpinski is a retired career officer in the United States Army Reserve. She is notable for having commanded the forces that operated Abu Ghraib and other prisons in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, at the time of the scandal related to torture and prisoner abuse. She commanded three prisons in Iraq and the forces that ran them. Her education includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and secondary education from Kean College, a Master of Arts degree in aviation management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and a Master of Arts in strategic studies from the United States Army War College.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib</span> Town in Baghdad Governorate, Iraq

Abu Ghraib is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib. The government of Iraq created the city and Abu Ghraib District in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lynndie England</span> United States Army soldier convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners

Lynndie Rana England is a former United States Army Reserve soldier who was prosecuted for mistreating detainees during the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse that occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad during the Iraq War. She was one of 11 military personnel from the 372nd Military Police Company who were convicted in 2005 for war crimes. After being sentenced to three years in prison and a dishonorable discharge, England was incarcerated from September 27, 2005, to March 1, 2007, when she was released on parole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Graner</span> Soldier convicted of prisoner abuse (born 1968)

Charles A. Graner Jr. is an American former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Graner was accused of allowing and inflicting sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq.

Megan Ambuhl is a former United States Army Reserve soldier who was convicted of dereliction of duty for her role in the prisoner abuse that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Frederick</span> American soldier convicted of prisoner abuse

Ivan "Chip" Frederick II is an American former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Police Company, Frederick was accused of allowing and inflicting sexual, physical, and psychological abuse on Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison, a notorious prison in Baghdad during the United States' occupation of Iraq. In May 2004, Frederick pleaded guilty to conspiracy, dereliction of duty, maltreatment of detainees, assault, and indecent acts. He was sentenced to 8 years' confinement and loss of rank and pay, and he received a dishonorable discharge. He was released on parole in October 2007, after spending four years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Bucca</span> American detention facility in Iraq

Camp Bucca was a forward operating base that housed a theater internment facility maintained by the United States military in the vicinity of Umm Qasr, Iraq. After being taken over by the U.S. military in April 2003, it was renamed after Ronald Bucca, a New York City fire marshal who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks. The site where Camp Bucca was built had earlier housed the tallest structure in Iraq, a 492-meter-high TV mast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse</span> 2004 American military scandal during the Iraq War

During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally.

About six months after the United States invasion of Iraq of 2003, rumors of Iraq prison abuse scandals started to emerge.

Sergeant Joseph M. Darby is a former U.S. Army Reservist known as the whistleblower in the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse scandal. Darby is a graduate of North Star High School, near his hometown at the time, Jenners, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Manadel al-Jamadi</span> Iraqi extrajudicial prisoner

Manadel al-Jamadi was an Iraqi national who was killed in United States custody during a CIA interrogation at Abu Ghraib prison on 4 November 2003. His name became known in 2004 when the Abu Ghraib scandal made headlines; his corpse packed in ice was the background for widely reprinted photographs of grinning U.S. Army specialists Sabrina Harman and Charles Graner each offering a "thumbs-up" gesture. Al-Jamadi had been a suspect in a bomb attack that killed 34 people, including one US soldier, and left more than 200 wounded in a Baghdad Red Cross facility.

Ghost detainee is a term used in the executive branch of the United States government to designate a person held in a detention center, whose identity has been hidden by keeping them unregistered and therefore anonymous. Such uses arose as the Bush administration initiated the War on Terror following the 9/11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. As documented in the 2004 Taguba Report, it was used in the same manner by United States officials and contractors of the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003–2004.

Judith Clare Thompson, OC is a Canadian playwright. She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the recipient of many other awards including the Order of Canada, the Walter Carsen Performing Arts Award, the Toronto Arts Award, The Epilepsy Ontario Award, The B'nai B'rith Award, the Dora, the Chalmers, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, both for Palace of the End, which premiered at Canadian Stage, and has been produced all over the world in many languages. She has received honorary doctorates from Thorneloe University and, in November 2016, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

United States Army Captain Carolyn Wood is a military intelligence officer who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq. She was implicated by the Fay Report to have "failed" in several aspects of her command regarding her oversight of interrogators at Abu Ghraib. She was alleged by Amnesty International to be centrally involved in the 2003 Abu Ghraib and 2002 Bagram prisoner abuse cases. Wood is featured in the 2008 Academy award-winning documentary Taxi to the Dark Side.

<i>Valley of the Wolves: Iraq</i> 2006 Turkish film

Valley of the Wolves: Iraq is a 2006 Turkish action film directed by Serdar Akar and starring Necati Şaşmaz, Billy Zane and Ghassan Massoud. The story concerns a Turkish commando team which goes to Iraq to track down the US military commander responsible for the Hood event.

Guardians is an Off-Broadway play written by Peter Morris. It debuted at the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning the "Fringe First Award" and made its New York debut on April 11, 2006 at The Culture Project.

Steven L. Jordan is a former United States Army Reserve officer. Jordan volunteered to return to active duty to support the war in Iraq, and as a civil affairs officer with a background in military intelligence, was made the director of the Joint Interrogation Debriefing Center at Abu Ghraib prison.

<i>Standard Operating Procedure</i> (film) 2008 documentary film by Errol Morris

Standard Operating Procedure is a 2008 American documentary film written and directed by Errol Morris that explores the meaning of the photographs taken by U.S. military police at the Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, the content of which revealed the torture and abuse of its prisoners by U.S. soldiers and subsequently resulted in a public scandal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Casteel</span> US soldier, lecturer, and writer

Joshua Casteel was a United States Army soldier, conscientious objector, playwright, and divinity student. He volunteered for the army in 2002 and conducted interrogations in Abu Ghraib prison.

References

  1. 1 2 Michael, Billington (November 2, 2010). "Palace of the End – review". The Guardian .
  2. Jones, Kenneth. "Judith Thompson's Palace of the End Looks at Iraq War", Playbill, January 14, 2008
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Palace of the End". Theater Mania. June 23, 2008.
  4. Huyck, Ed. Palace of the End takes us deep into the horrors of Iraq", MinnPost , October 2, 2009
  5. Orel, Gwen. "Palace of the End", Backstage , March 25, 2013
  6. McMillan, Joyce (August 27, 2015). "Amnesty theatre award celebrates voices of unheard". The Scotsman. Retrieved 9 June 2023.