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Human Animals
>"Don't go burying wild animals in my garden… or at least ask for permission first."
In the overcrowded city, nature is getting out of control.
The mice are scratching between walls, the pigeons are diseased and the foxes are beginning to rule the streets.
The problem is growing. It's contagious. It has to be stopped, before it's too late.
"People can get used to terrible things. Very quickly. If they have to. It doesn't take much for things to start to fall apart."
Stef Smith's Human Animals premiereD at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 2016.
In the overcrowded city, nature is getting out of control.
The mice are scratching between walls, the pigeons are diseased and the foxes are beginning to rule the streets.
The problem is growing. It's contagious. It has to be stopped, before it's too late.
"People can get used to terrible things. Very quickly. If they have to. It doesn't take much for things to start to fall apart."
Stef Smith's Human Animals premiereD at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in May 2016.
- GenresPlays
134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 19, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 26, 2022
Update: 9/25/22
Even though I read this only 8 months ago, I wanted to do a reread already. If anything, this is even more eerily powerful and timely on a second read-through - some intrepid theatre company should definitely do a revival stat!
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.sierz.co.uk/reviews/human...
Original review:
Jamie: 'There are five survivors, four normal adult human beings and a dog. The boat will only support four. All will perish if one is not sacrificed. Which one ought to be cast overboard?'
Lisa: The dog.
Jamie: Why?
Lisa: Because it's a dog.
Jamie: What if three of them were in the Nazi Party, and one was a paedophile? And the dog was a Labrador.
Lisa: The paedophile.
Jamie: What if the paedophile was a woman?
PAUSE
Lisa: What sort of boat is this?
Freaking loved the absurd, deadpan humor of this play, but it's also eerily prescient, since it's about how humans go crazy when they are faced with having to deal with a pandemic affecting all the animals in nature. Quarantines, shortages, sudden deaths - it's all here, written four years prior to our own dilemma. And that cover? - perfect, priceless!
Even though I read this only 8 months ago, I wanted to do a reread already. If anything, this is even more eerily powerful and timely on a second read-through - some intrepid theatre company should definitely do a revival stat!
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.sierz.co.uk/reviews/human...
Original review:
Jamie: 'There are five survivors, four normal adult human beings and a dog. The boat will only support four. All will perish if one is not sacrificed. Which one ought to be cast overboard?'
Lisa: The dog.
Jamie: Why?
Lisa: Because it's a dog.
Jamie: What if three of them were in the Nazi Party, and one was a paedophile? And the dog was a Labrador.
Lisa: The paedophile.
Jamie: What if the paedophile was a woman?
PAUSE
Lisa: What sort of boat is this?
Freaking loved the absurd, deadpan humor of this play, but it's also eerily prescient, since it's about how humans go crazy when they are faced with having to deal with a pandemic affecting all the animals in nature. Quarantines, shortages, sudden deaths - it's all here, written four years prior to our own dilemma. And that cover? - perfect, priceless!
May 11, 2020
Very timely play.
May 14, 2020
Absolutely brilliant, disturbing, scary but brilliant
March 21, 2021
3.5/5 ⭐ Very topical, but doesn't sit too well in an ongoing pandemic 🙃
May 22, 2020
Read it for the NHB Playgroup. This play explores how humans react to fear in the middle of an epidemic. It's scary how life imitates fiction.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews