The Insect Play

By Karel and Josef Capek
Directed by Lucy Crowe & Jenny Culank

A young solider displaced by war, observes the rituals of an insect world. The insects irritate him as they flirt, steal and kill, all operating to his own set of rules in a struggle for power. As they scurry around we are made aware of our own passions, instincts and vices as the cycle of human life is brutally, yet humorously reproduced.The Insect Play is a powerful anti-war satire, written between the first and second world wars in what was then known as Czechoslovakia.  It condenses the entire spectrum of human nature into a play in which insects serve as metaphors for the same desires that propel people to love, procreate and annihilate one another through war.

Classworks Youth Theatre presented extracts of The Insect Play at Manor Community College, Cambridge on 11th February 2010, and we are now developing the piece to be performed outdoors on 7 July, 2010 at 7pm, Fulbourn Nature Reserve, Stonebridge Lane, Fulbourn, Cambridge and at 3pm, Canbury Gardens, Kingston, London as part of The International Youth Arts Festival on 10 July 2010.

This production is supported by Cambridge City Council.