Amid the Bombs, Political Satire Plays Baghdad

Playing to determined crowds who travel to the National Theater after dark, Ali Hussein’s cabaret-style two-act Bring the King, Bring Him “portrays Iraqi politicians as petty, corrupt and detached from the people they govern. […] So out of touch is one politician that he proposes (just like a real-life legislator) erecting a huge Ferris wheel ‘so people can cool off in the summer heat’.”