Synopsis:

"An extraordinary and heartbreaking piece." – The Theatre Times

"Chimpanzee is in itself a master class in puppet manipulation" – MonTheatre

An hour in a theatre, a day in a biomedical facility, a lifetime in the mind of a chimpanzee.

Chimpanzee is based on the stranger-than-fiction stories of chimpanzees raised as children in human homes, in a series of cross-fostering experiments conducted in the United States.

In this "deeply felt nonverbal memory play" (New York Magazine), a chimpanzee reminisces about the comfort, curiosity and freedom she had growing up in a human family, a contrast to her bleak present-day reality in a biomedical facility.

Shifts in time and place are conveyed through exquisite, lifelike bunraku style puppetry and haunting sound and lighting design.

"To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us." – Frans de Waal, primatologist and ethologist

Chimpanzee premiered at HERE Arts Center through Basil Twist's Dream Music Puppetry Program, with the support of The Jim Henson Foundation and Cheryl Henson.