The most prescient line in Rajiv Joseph's Bengal Tiger At The Baghdad Zoo, now premiering at the Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theater, is spoken by a ghost. And not just any ghost, but the spirit of Saddam Hussein's son. "Americans, always thinking that when things die, they go away." Those words seems to be the theme haunting this mind-bending and often exhilarating parable of war, death, and its consequences.

The story begins simply enough as two American soldiers guard a tiger in a war-torn zoo. After circumstances escalate, the tiger winds up dead in a pool of blood, and he (personified by actor Kevin Tighe, who is both ferocious and hilarious) becomes the first of many specter[...]