THE CONSUMPTION OF THE SPECIES

Tomáš Ráliš

Cast: 5 men, 3 women (variable)

This direction will not change. There will be more poverty, more death, more hopelessness, and it does not look like it should change. The world is consumed by cancer that had nurtured it so far. There are no heroes and those who are left are killing one another.

We need to save our children, protect them and try to secure a worthy future to them. But what if your offspring is too hopeless. Too depressive. Too defensive. Too aggressive. Too European.

Dramatic poem about a concrete savannah with frozen watering holes. There is no more work, chocolate, or fathers. There are only genitors and passengers. But there are stories, the last stories left, and their legacy.

Eight complete life stories that are connected by ice and the need of warmth regardless of age, sex, race, or altitude. A turbulent flight where passengers lose consciousness, conscience, love, and dignity.

We have been used up. And it is hard to say if we are renewable. We will rather consume ourselves. We will make ourselves extinct.

The play won the first prize in the Evald Schrom Award in 2022.

The play is available in the Czech original.