'Original and beautifully staged' event comes to Lyth Arts Centre

Lyth Arts Centre will host a live theatrical event in April that is described as a "funny and poignant look at love and communication in human (and not so human) relationships".

Scottish performance company, SUPERFAN sets off on tour across Scotland this March and April with Like Animals visiting Lyth Arts Centre on April 7 and 8.

Directed by Herald Angel Award winner Ellie Dubois (No Show) and inspired by true accounts of research scientists working to communicate with animals, Like Animals weaves stories of human-animal communication around an exploration into the real-life relationship of performers Kim Donohoe and Pete Lannon.

Every night, Alex the parrot and Irene the scientist bid one another farewell with "be good, see you tomorrow, I love you". As time marches on and their relationship deepens, Alex begins to use the language he has learned from Irene to manipulate her. Peter the dolphin lives in a flooded house with Margaret, who is teaching him English.

Working together in a bizarre NASA-funded experiment, their relationship garners unwelcome attention in the press with headlines such as "The Woman who lived in sin with a dolphin" (The Telegraph, June 2014). Delving into the research, Kim and Pete tell these stories with only a paddling pool and a couple of wetsuits.

MJ McCarthy’s delicate score and Rachel O’Neill’s surreal, contemporary design draws audiences into the joy and heartbreak of trying, and sometimes failing, to understand another being.

SUPERFAN is a Scottish performance company who create work for adult and young audiences that blend theatre, live art, circus and dance. SUPERFAN won the 2019 Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award and was named National Theatre of Scotland Company in Residence in 2020.

Following a hugely successful season as part of Edinburgh Fringe 2019, they were originally due to tour the production almost two years ago, but it was cancelled due to Covid-19. On bringing the show back to stages across Scotland, creator Pete Lannon said: “We’re thrilled to be taking Like Animals out on the road after a two year hiatus. It’s so exciting to get to perform to live audiences again. Although a lot has changed since we last performed the show, it still feels like it really resonates with where we are now, and it’s a lot of fun to perform.”

Like Animals has been developed in association with Tron CREATIVE through their Scratch and Tron Lab opportunities, and with support from Creative Scotland’s Open Project Fund.

Tickets on sale soon at lytharts.org.uk/

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