Innocent Creatures

Innocent Creatures

2023, York Theatre Royal

A play about the future, both imminent and far, far away.

Soon, very soon, Big Ben will be underwater surrounded by ice floes – which is where we meet Enid and Mia at the start of the play – they each have an ice floe each, as they wait to be rescued by the robots in helicopters and taken to the Holiday Inn – to be re-programmed – but on second thoughts, that’s not for Mia, she’d rather die than be rescued\captured and have a chip implanted in her neck, and proceeds to plunge into the icy water and sink to the bottom of the ocean.

This is a world where the robots are in charge and humans are made from recycled laptops, kindles and iPads. All the men were killed long ago – they were far too hairy. No one is allowed to refer to having had parents at the pain of an electric shock – that’s how the re-programming happens.

Fast forward another thousand years and Enid is still going strong, living in the rainforest that is overflowing with animals – tigers, monkeys, horses, bears, trap-door spiders and earwigs – you name it, it’s there in abundance – but the people only eat the vegetation, well you wouldn’t kill an innocent creature for food would you?

Fast forward thousands and thousands of years more and the sun is scorching hot as it’s about to explode and emit its last ray signalling the end of planet earth along with it, and Enid is still going strong, she’s happy, she’s got her pet hamster for company and Mia’s suddenly dropped in to say hello, after being brought back to life a few hundred years earlier by the robots.

The last sunset will be beautiful, worth hanging around for to see.