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    Palace of the End
    Palace of the End
    Palace of the End
    Ebook69 pages46 minutes

    Palace of the End

    By Judith Thompson

    4.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    A searing triptych of three monologues all exposing the ugly truth behind the headlines of the Iraq War.

    Based around the lives of three distinct characters—a young soldier imprisoned for her misconduct at a prison camp in Iraq, a microbiologist-cum-weapons inspector who exposes the false justifications for war, and a mother/political opponent of Saddam Hussein—Palace of the End details the reality of the war in Iraq from three unique perspectives. With its emphasis on the human voice and power of the soul in the midst of a destructive war, each account is a riveting and brilliantly portrayed indictment of one of the contemporary world's worst conflicts.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPlaywrights Canada Press
    Release dateNov 1, 2007
    ISBN9781770910751
    Palace of the End
    Author

    Judith Thompson

    Judith Thompson is a two-time winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for White Biting Dog and The Other Side of the Dark. In 2006 she was invested as an Officer in the Order of Canada and in 2008 she was awarded the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play Palace of the End. Judith is a professor of drama at the University of Guelph and lives with her husband and five children in Toronto.

    Read more from Judith Thompson

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    Reviews for Palace of the End

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Congratulations, Judith Timson, you have created three beautiful worlds. Fuck you, George Bush, for introducing evil into them all. Or, well, no, Saddam takes credit too. Why do I find that so artificial in this story, when it's an undeniable fact in real life? I guess because a story shouldn't strive for considered balance; It should just strive to say something real, not say it all. Also, Sorry, Judith Timson, but you should have gotten your friend from Esquimalt to write the Lynndie England monologue. It rings false at important moments.

    Book preview

    Palace of the End - Judith Thompson

    Cover: Palace of the End by Judith Thompson

    In a stylized script font, Palace of the End is on a green background. Below, a human figure faces a palm tree in the desert with a blue sky behind it. A blue frame borders the image, and the human’s shadow bleeds into the lower left-hand corner. Stylized black lines criss-cross the image. Beneath it, Judith Thompson appears in the same stylized font as the title.

    Critics’ Pick!

    —Time Out New York

    Judith Thompson paints a richly textured portrait…. Thompson defiantly scrapes to the marrow of opposing camps, offering a lament that is theological and tragic and contains a rare, eerie beauty.

    —LA Weekly

    Perspectives on Iraq vividly staged.

    —Studio City Sun

    "Palace of the End thrills as much as it disturbs, leaving the viewer, if not a better, surely a wiser person."

    —Bloomberg

    "Palace of the End… never crosses the line of abject moralizing. The issues are presented as theatre; the voice is focused, commanding. The truth is a catharsis for redemption."

    —Tolucan Times

    Beautifully poetic and brutally graphic.

    —The NY Daily News

    "As the curtain call ended, a stranger said to me ‘That was intense. I mean, God. Wow!’ "

    —NYTheatre.com

    "Palace of the End raises the bar. …beautifully specific writing… packs a mean punch… as quietly unforgettable as it is purposely rending."

    —LA Times Critics Choice

    Palace of The End

    Also by Judith Thompson

    Body & Soul

    Capture Me

    The Crackwalker

    Enoch Arden in the Hope of Shelter

    Habitat

    Lion in the Streets

    Palace of the End

    Perfect Pie

    Sled

    Such Creatures

    White Biting Dog

    Palace of The End

    Judith Thompson

    Playwrights Canada Press

    Toronto • Canada

    Palace of the End © 2007 Judith Thompson

    PLAYWRIGHTS CANADA PRESS

    The Canadian Drama Publisher

    202-269 Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON Canada M5V 1X1

    416.703.0013 • info@playwrightscanada.com • www.playwrightscanada.com

    No part of this book, covered by the copyright herein, may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review, or by a licence from Access Copyright

    1 Yonge St., Suite 800, Toronto, ON M5E 1E5

    phone 416.868.1620

    For professional or amateur production rights, please contact

    Great North Artists Management

    350 Dupont St., Toronto, ON M5R 1V9

    phone 416.925.2051

    Playwrights Canada Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council and Ontario Creates, for our publishing activities.

    Cover artwork by Nuska Prijatelj

    Production editor / Cover design by JLArt

    LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

    Thompson, Judith, 1954-Palace of the end / Judith Thompson--Rev. 2nd ed.

    A play. ISBN 978-0-88754-835-2-9

    1. Iraq War, 2003- --Drama. I. Title

    PS8589.H4883P34 2008       C812’.54 C2008-904095-3

    First edition: November 2007

    Second edition: July 2008

    Fifth printing: September 2012

    Printed and bound in Canada by Imprimerie Gauvin, Gatineau

    The author encourages readers of this play to donate to the following charity, which has been endorsed by Dr. Thabit A.J. Abdullah:

    Iraqi Alamal Association

    Karadah, Al-Alwiah, Sector 903, Road 14, Number 6

    (Road opposite Alwiyah Telecommunication Office)

    Alwia, Baghdad, Iraq

    Website: www.iraqi-alamal.org

    The author’s royalties from the sale of this book are going to this charity.

    Dedicated to:

    Connie Rooke a visionary, brilliant editor, great beauty and inspiration to women everywhere

    &

    the thousands of Iraqi children who have endured unimaginable suffering for so very long

    Playwright’s Note

    Each of these three monologues is based on news stories or research on events involving the real person named as the speaker, but the persona or character of each speaker has been created by me, and everything other than the real events springs from my imagination.

    My Pyramids was inspired by the media circus around Lynndie England, the American soldier convicted of the sexual torture of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison.

    Harrowdown Hill was inspired by the well publicized events surrounding the public life and solitary death of Dr. David Kelly, the British weapons inspector and microbiologist.

    Instruments of Yearning was inspired by the true story of Nehrjas Al Saffarh, a well-known member of the Communist party of Iraq, who was tortured by Saddam Hussein’s secret police

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