ANOTHER LIFE

Another Life is the only American play to the tell story of the U.S. torture program and how it led us into war. Beginning on the day of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Another Life is the story of a mogul, Handel, who founds the private contracting company Deepwater and sends his bereaved daughter, Lucia, off to become a physician at the Bagram Air Force Base torture site.  As the play becomes more surreal, Handel imprisons his wife, Tess, and an Egyptian cab driver, Abdul, in his home; and in alternating, harshly realistic scenes, Lucia joins the International Red Cross, discovers a black site prison at Abu Ghraib, and becomes a whistle blower.

Festivals of Conscience: Over 50 human rights advocates, lawyers for Guantanamo Detainees, journalists, and activists spoke during four Festivals of Conscience held in conjunction with the productions of Another Life.

Go to Script Library

Click here to Read about the writing of "Another Life" in "Torture & Culture" just published in the international Torture Magazine.

The American Anti-Torture Play Another Life Goes to London 

"Karen's play is very well written, poetic, engaged and engaging, and the cast were brilliant, all excellent actors,"  Philip Bergson, BBC Film Commentator

Irondale Center, Brooklyn,  March 8-24, 2012 :

One of the reasons I was so interested in this play is that in many ways it reminds me of another really great piece of literature. Just as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein captures the terror of the French Revolution in a simple story, Karen Malpede’s Another Life compresses all the political tensions of the 9/11 era into the lives of just six characters.  And just like Dr. Frankenstein, Malpede’s Handel makes “another life” after 9/11, one that changes everyone fatefully forever. -Darius Rejali, author Torture & Democracy

Your writing is like a lucid web of poetic consciousness. It was really stunning to behold so artful a presentation on so terrible a time in our civilization . You are a Truth teller and a bold witness. Your actors were stellar. Bravo for that ensemble. George deserves his own curtain call.-Kevin Augustine, artistic director, Lone Wolf Tribe

Another Life is the kind of play one hopes to experience but rarely gets the opportunity to. I was on the edge of my seat. I laughed and I cried. Karen Malpede and George Bartinieff have managed to characterize our life and times into actual believable characters as Dickens might have. Another Life brings us closer to a humanistic understanding of terrorism, 9/11, Abu Ghraib, and the political 1%, with wit, and humor and profound sensibility. With a great ensemble acting and a once in a lifetime tour de force performance by one of America's greatest actors George Bartenieff. Another Life is Pulitzer worthy.-Penny Arcade, performance artist, author

You MUST see this brave and brilliant work by Karen Malpede, George Bartenieff and Company!  Your life depends on it! It is the story that needs to be told, especially now, when so many voices are silent.  -Joan MacIntosh, multi-award winning actress

  Powerful.-Mark Danner, author

Great and important work!-Charlotte Phillips, Brooklyn for Peace

It’s a brilliant play; it is too brilliant for the culture.  It should win a Pulitzer Prize.  It won’t, but it

should.-Judith Malina, Co-founder, Director, The Living Theatre 

To Read, Hear & See more go to Another Life: Article, Video & Radio Archive

 Another Life Photo Gallery, Theater for the New City, March 2013:  George Bartenieff, Christen Clifford, Abbas Noori Abbood, Abraham Makany, Di Zhu, and Alex Tavis.  Lighting design by Tony Giovannetti; Costume design by Sally Ann Parsons & Carisa Kelly; Video design by Luba Lukova; Set design by Robert Eggers; Sound and Music by Arthur Rosen.  Photos by Beatriz Schiller.

Theater Three Collaborative's production of "Another Life" written and directed by Karen Malpede, with George Bartenieff (Handel) and Alex Tavis (David Abbas). Reacting to the trauma and the business opportunities following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the mogul Handel forms Deepwater, a private security company. At dinner he recruits David Abbas.

A section of the torture of Abu Zubaydah from Theater Three Collaborative's "Another Life" written and directed by Karen Malpede, with Di Zhu (Lucia), Abraham Makany (the spirit of Geoff, her fiancé, killed in the 9/11 attacks) and Alex Tavis (David Abbas).

Handel's private post-9/11 prison in a section from Theater Three Collaborative's production of "Another Life", written and directed by Karen Malpede, with Christen Clifford (Tess), George Bartenieff (Handel) and Abbas Noori Abbood (Abdul).

Lucia bears witness to the testimony of Emad Khydayir Shahuth Al-Janabi in a scene from Theater Three Collaborative's "Another Life", written and directed by Karen Malpede with Di Zhu (Lucia), Alex Tavis (David Abbas) and Abraham Makany (spirit of Geoff).

Whistleblowing and the US torture program in the final scene from Theater Three Collaborative's "Another Life" written and directed by Karen Malpede, with Di Zhu (Lucia).