The show has been commissioned by the Northern Rural Touring Consortium (North of England) who wanted the Grand Theatre of Lemmings to have the challenge of working with an international artist. The company produced part of the show with Heather Joyce a Canadian musician, who has composed original songs. And Samuel Gardès will be interpreting them for the duration of the show tour.
The ’Descent of Man’ is an evening of chaotic, comedy madness based on the ‘Darwin awards’, which are given to people who improve the human gene pool by removing themselves from it in remarkably stupid ways. Add to that a giant book with a mind of its own and the stage is set for anarchy as fictitious characters spill out of the books pages and take to the stage.
Inspired by the work of ’Forkbeards Fantasy’, the show mixes theatre, film and animation to create a fantastic comedy around a multi-media book that is following its own evolutionary destiny, and attempts to answer some of life’s big questions ; where do we come from ? Why are we here ? And how do we get back home afterwards ?