Human Animals

Hannah Sands is directing Human Animals by Stef Smith. I met up with her and the cast of the show to do a photoshoot in a dodgy back alley in Cambridge. There were some old semi-open garages that provided a great backdrop for the shoot, as well as giving us great light to work with. Hannah had the idea to wrap the actors in black and yellow barricade tape, which made me happy, because good props make a photoshoot more fun.

Nature is revolting! London struggles against an animal infestation – or does it? In the midst of the chaos, six characters endure a restrictive, claustrophobic existence: as curfews are enforced, roads closed and parks burned to the ground, their humanity is reduced to one alarmingly similar to their animal companions. Smith’s play presents a twisted version of natural selection that interrogates how far society will go to protect itself. As animal instincts kick in and civility is discarded, characters must choose between fight or flight. Should they bare their teeth and bite back, or roll over compliantly?

(Text from Camdram)

  Blood dries darker than you think
     It’s that moment of darkness into deeper darkness
                  Are those my only options?
       Congealed red on the glass
A mouse in your / cereal box
            A noise / up ahead
                A scratching / between the wall
       As they shot them right / through the wing
                    Are you going to kiss me back?
       Are you going to?

Burning all the
     Every single
          Forced to
               So I just
                    I don’t understand
                         It’s not
                              It’s not.

I don’t know how
I’ve no idea how we
Can we even
How can we
And you felt?
You felt.
What?

You
     They
          They beat her
               They just
                    Why are you
                         I’m not
                              Who can

When they ask us what we saw and what we did
All of us will just say
I stood and watched
          I stood and watched
                    I stood and watched

This is an / early warning.
          Consider this is an early warning.
               No one said
                   No one said evolution was precise

The trees are
               The birds are
                    The streets are
                         The rivers
                              The oceans
                                   The icebergs
          Something about icebergs
          It’s too hot
                                             And it’s too cold
                                                  And it’s big.
               It’s bigger than words what’s happening.
                    Bigger than words.

But it’s not the type of silence that feels like a void, a nothingness, it’s the type of silence that is so thick it makes you choke.

You can find them at Edinburgh Fringe 14-26 August 2017 at SpaceTriplex.

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Cast
Alex – Amy Malone
Jamie – Joe Pitts
John – Will Bishop
Lisa – Alice Carlill
Nancy – Emma Blacklay-Piech
Si – Jamie P Robson

Production Team
Director – Hannah Sands
Producer – Miranda Venables
Assistant Director – Holly Mackinlay
Production Designer and Stage Manager – Rose Payne
Lighting and Sound Designer – Johnny King
Publicity Designer – Julia Nielsen
Photographer – Johannes Hjorth