Live
Fringe

Human Bestiary

Principio… (Mexico)

diegoalro.wix.com/principio

22–23 January 2016, 8pm
The Substation Theatre

90 minutes with no intermission

Fringe Highlight • Asian Premiere

Rating

Price

$22 | $19*

*concession for students, NSF & senior citizens

Biography of Artist

"An excellent work; Human Bestiary is an unsettling, direct play, with great use of technology and an accurate study of history and mankind."
- Xosué Martínez, Cultural Institute of León

In the time you take to read this, an area equivalent to 70 soccer courts will be destroyed. At least 10 plant species and three animal species will be extinguished completely from this planet and five children will die from hunger.

"This didactic play, should be seen by the youth, teachers, businessmen but specially politicians; maybe there are some that are not completely blind yet."
- Luz Emilia Aguilar Zinser, Excelsior

As young artists, we have always been concerned with the role in creating consciousness and analysing the problems that are defining the world and time we live in.

The extinction of animal and plant species, global warming and the destruction of natural habitats throughout our planet are perhaps the greatest problems we face as a generation. These problems are created by humanity by our very existence and the way we've been interacting with our environment. Human Bestiary is a play which intends to investigate how we got to where we are today.

This play uses technology and multimedia such as video projections and a live DJ set to create a stage documentary about the unfixable, and things we could yet fix.

"This play leaves a pessimistic feeling about men but optimistic about humanity."
- Karina Eridhe Macías, Time Out Mexico

Principio… creates projects with the conviction that theatre can be a tool for change, with the aim to give audience theatre they've never seen before. Their projects come from the analysis of problems and concerns inherent in our environment and the time we live in as a generation. Principio... seeks to create a bond between our play, the audience and reality.

Sean says:

"This is easily the wildest and gutsiest piece in this year's Fringe, where girl power meets animal power. Physically and psychologically intense, raw and bold, be prepared to be confronted and inspired by the performance."

Relationship to Art and the Animal

Human Bestiary was born from concern for our own kind. As a theatre company, Principio… believe that as animals ourselves, humans have the obligation to protect nature and the species that we have used, exiled and destroyed as our societies have grown.

We believe in harnessing animalistic passion as a creative force to inspire our work, an instinct that inhabits our bodies and helped us survive through thousands of years of merciless nature, way before we were born and before our societies even existed. In the last 200 years alone, humankind has displaced and murdered more than 80% of the animals that inhabited our planet. We have more commodities than ever, yet we often fail to realise that millions of animal species have had their lives sacrificed in order for us to enjoy our convenient modern lifestyles.

As artists, we think that it is our obligation to look for new ways to raise concerns about the destruction of nature, because we recognise that every animal needs other species to survive, and we are no exception. We created Human Bestiary because we strongly believe that in our current situation, not just for art and artists, but all humans must struggle for the preservation of life, if we don't want to end up being the only animals left.