Cultural Bias

We saw a play last night called Palace of the End. It was written by a Canadian playwright, preformed in Ireland, but featured three monologues about the United States' War in Iraq. The first monologue was Pfc. Lynndie England's, the solder whose picture giving the thumbs up next to a blindfolded Iraqi prisoner circulated all around the world. I almost walked out after five minutes, because not only was the soldier portrayed as an ignorant hick, but stood in an army uniform pregnant. The character was a complete misrepresentation of Americans and was a disgrace to American soldiers. The mostly Irish audience laughed when the soldier talked about how she was filmed having sex in front of the prisoners, saying, "what American girl hasn't been filmed doing it?" I found it very interesting that despite her being from West Virginia and having a strong southern accent, she threw in a "dude" every other sentence. Do people not understand that we are still fighting this war, and while I may not believe in the cause I support those who decide to fight for our country and our country's decisions. How dare someone mock that.

The play continued with a monologue from David Kelly, a British arms expert who killed himself in 2003 after being identified as the source of a BBC report that the British government had doctored its assessments of Iraq’s weapons programs. His monologue was very touching and brought up a lot of question about loyalty and honesty. Funny, he made a reference to Bobby Sands (a member of the Irish Republican Army who died in prison Northern Ireland in 1981 after leading a hunger strike against British controlling Ireland) as one of his idols. Could this play get any more biased? Yup.

The third monologue was the most disturbing. A Iraqi woman recounted the story of her family being tortured because they identified with the communist party during a time when the US was still supporting Saddam. Yet she compared Iraqi dependence on dates to the Irish dependence on potatoes. Maybe the biases were a way for the Irish audience to connect to the American politica, but it seemes more like a way to put them above the drama. Overall the acting in the play was excellent, but I felt offended as an American watching a play in Ireland, written by a Canadian, demeaning my county.