06 Apr LOOK AHEAD: Animals at Theatre503

Writer – Emma Adams
Director – Lisa Cagnacci
Designer – Max Dorey
Lighting Designer – Johanna Town
Composer – Timon Wapenaar
Sound Design – Max Pappenheim

Following the success of the widely-acclaimed WINK, the next play in Theatre503’s season of new writing will be Animals. Marking Associate Artistic Director, Lisa Cagnacci’s first in-house production for Theatre503, Animals is described as a dark satire, which ”conceives an ultra-capitalist world where limited resources dictate that there is only room for the smart, healthy and well-adjusted.”

We are invited to imagine a world where everyone over 60 is tossed on the scrapheap, children are hothoused and being a “burden on society” is the ultimate crime. Everybody is given a permit that displays their economic value to society and inspectors are out to get the worthless…

From Yorkshire-based writer Emma Adams, neither the old nor inept will fit as human cogs in ‘The Utility’s’ consumerist machine.

It begins as an average day when 77-year-old Norma (Marlene Sidaway) can’t finish her crossword and Joy (Sadie Shimmin) keeps stealing her recliner. Of course, Helen (Cara Chase) next door has gone and twisted her ankle falling from a weather balloon. They’ve run out of Class A drugs and the ‘Utility’ Inspector just popped round to see if it’s time for her involuntary euthanasia. A world of bubble-wrapped children, bribery and compulsory public ignorance unravels.

Showing in the run-up to the general election, Animals promises to be a politically-fuelled, surreal new drama which explores the morality of capitalism and the extent to which the authorities will go to keep society in the dark.

For tickets and information: theatre503.com
Venue: Theatre503
Dates: 8th April – 2nd May 2015