‘Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead’: Eco-thriller delves into animal rights with sharp wit
Does God really believe animals have no souls? Are they less important than humans? Why is hunting an animal deemed sport when killing a human is murder? Nobel-prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk was accused of anti-religion and inciting eco-terrorism when her novel was published in 2009.
SANITA RAO: Does God really believe animals have no souls? Are they less important than humans? Why is hunting an animal deemed sport when killing a human is murder? Nobel-prize winning author Olga Tokarczuk caused quite a stir when her novel of the same name was published in her native Poland in 2009. She was accused of anti-religion and inciting eco-terrorism…
Actress Kathryn Hunter gives an astounding, almost non-stop performance over the space of two and half hours. Between the rapid fire narration, she switches between scenes in her humble home in a Polish village bordering with the Czech Republic, located on a mountainside filled with animals and a plateau that could become a quarry.
There is plenty of satire, a good dose of pain, and a huge amount of empathy for Janina – the only person defending hunted deer, farmed foxes and wild boar against a village of hunters. The play starts with the discovery of the dead body of Janina’s neighbour, an uncouth hunter she calls Big Foot. Four murders follow. It seems like the animals are taking revenge on their killers…
The actors bring to life the animals – in black hooded jackets with their hands as antlers, as a dying wild boar, or silver foxes. Every now and again the stage lights flash brightly and the audience feels just like a deer caught in the headlights, an animal being hunted in the dark.
There are various backdrops, including the night skies, star constellations, a large glass window – a view to the silent forest in winter which turns into a mirror reflecting the debauchery of mankind, which all come together to compliment this dialogue-driven performance…
Janina is not simply an old woman with a grudge against men. She feels the pain of the natural world in her limbs and her guts. She reads the stars to predict the future of the world, and she misses her two dogs, her “girls” who disappeared one day. She refuses to be a prisoner in a society that shuts its eyes to the rape of nature.
You might think this will be one long eco-lecture, and the thriller element does detract from what might be a constant barrage of how badly mankind has treated the world… But it’s not a diatribe, it is thought-provoking. Exactly where does the meat we eat come from, how are the animals treated, and why do we feel we have a right to slaughter them? SOURCE…
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