by Robert Askins
(April - May)
Scurius, the patriarch of a family of gray squirrels, has collected enough nuts to last ten winters. When a group of starving fox squirrels begs him to share his hoard of food, animosity erupts into a ferocious war. The Squirrels is a boundary-pushing, darkly satirical look at wealth inequality in which no creature comes out unscathed.
“The fast-paced 90-minute play…is a witty black comedy about a mixed-race squirrel family decimated by prejudice and greed. Writ large, it’s an apocalyptic tale of America’s cultural divide. …[Askins] drops a thought bomb…about our responsibility for the destruction of the environment and for the care of one’s fellow squirrel (and otherwise).”
—San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Crazy? Of course. Crazy is what Askins does. Charming? Yes, that too, and thought-provoking. …The Squirrels offers an amusing tale that challenges assumptions about good and evil, power and tribalism. This is an experience like no
other.” —SDGLN.com.
“…an epic, an allegory, a tragedy and a cautionary tale all rolled into one.” —TimesofSanDiego.com.
“The Squirrels is [an] allegory that launches salvos at current events, framed by a potential apocalypse. …Beneath the satire, the play raises serious questions, in particular, why does inequality reign?” —San Diego Reader.