A legal enquiry into the origin and future of mankind, a philosophical and fantastic fable adapted from the novel “You Shall Know Them”

The play follows the trial of Douglas Templemore, who has just poisoned his child. But the child looks very much like a monkey. His mother, a captive at the zoo, is from New Guinea and belongs to the anthropoid species called Paranthropus erectus. Douglas declared the child and even had it baptized, but the question then becomes: did he commit infanticide or animal murder?

Revealing our past and shaping our future, Zoo takes up, in its own whimsical yet profound way, the still burning question of the relationship between man and animal. The play is an intellectual adventure as exciting as it is modern, in the light of today's scientific and philosophical advances.

BASED ON Zoo ou l’Assassin philanthrope et Les Animaux dénaturés (You Shall Know Them) BY Vercors
DIRECTION Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota

DIRECTION ASSISTANT Julie PEIGNÉ
ARTISTIC COLLABORATORS Christophe LEMAIRE, François REGNAULT
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORS Carine KARACHI, Jean AUDOUZE, Marie-Christine MAUREL, Georges CHAPOUTHIER
SET DESIGN Yves COLLET, Emmanuel DEMARCY-MOTA
LIGHTING DESIGN Christophe LEMAIRE, Yves COLLET
MUSIC Arman MÉLIÈS
COSTUMES Fanny BROUSTE
SOUND Flavien GAUDON
VIDEO Renaud RUBIANO
MAKE UP & HAIR Catherine NICOLAS
MASKS Anne LERAY
PROPS Erik JOURDIL

WITH Marie-France ALVAREZ, Charles-Roger BOUR, Céline CARRÈRE, Jauris CASANOVA, Valérie DASHWOOD, Anne DUVERNEUIL, Sarah KARBASNIKOFF, Stéphane KRÄENBÜHL, Gérald MAILLET, Ludovic PARFAIT-GOMA, Mathis ZAKHAR

Production Théâtre de la Ville – Paris
Coproduction Musée d’Orsay

Created on March 17th, 2022 at the Théâtre de la Ville - Espace Cardin

Télérama

Through a magical play of light and shadow and an aesthetic between dream and realism, Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota, nourished by his fruitful collaboration with scientists and doctors, dares to create a production that makes us think and dream.

Le Monde

A fast, agile performance of Zoo (...) that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota knows how to lead his actors. Through them, we hear the voice of Vercors. (...) Fifty years later, his call for resistance remains obvious.