Theatre Review: The Intrusion

The Intrusion is a play that’s openly inspired by Kafka, so of course I had to go watch it. (Is this marketing accurate? Only partly. I would definitely have framed it as Urinetown meets The Metamorphosis.) With a minimal cast of only three, it is a slight but incredibly watchable satire. The actors’ talents are all on display as they play sentient cockroaches navigating the collapse of human civilization (with one shining exception) and resorting to strict water rationing in the times of catastrophic climate change. Drawing on slapstick humour and provocative jokes, the cast perform with warmth and charm on a minimalist stage set, and the background captions and subtitles do a great job of ensuring the audience isn’t lost between locations, characters and scenes.

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This play is smart, inventive and above all: very funny

The general gist: these tough survivors are biding their time until they can freely roam the surface of the earth again, since human beings (here referred to derogatorily as “two-legged monsters”) have destroyed themselves and most of the planet while they were at it. There are video references to Donald Trump and David Attenborough, and includes an interlude where the cast asks members of the audience to write down on plantable paper what they would spend their last seconds of life thinking about and read out their answers. “We were here first, and we will be here last” turns the old joke about cockroaches on its head, and then that gets a new meaning as a rallying cry in the play’s climax. The domineering leader of this curious collective, after forcing their overworked underling to stand behind them to interpret their speech in sign language, grabs a red-tipped microphone and sings an incredibly catchy song: a tragic backstory about a genocidal campaign against their wife and children (and the rest of their species) which pushed them to seize power and never be vulnerable again. Who knew I needed to hear a complaint about how the Bronx zoo names cockroaches after a human’s exes, sang acapella style? Or that I would actually really enjoy seeing a little red cup seemingly move itself across the floor while a camouflage-clad actor writhed behind a red semi-circular lectern that went up to their hips?

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the cast perform with warmth and charm on a minimalist stage set

This play is smart, inventive and above all: very funny. There was no one in the audience not laughing in joy at the choreography done with oversized newspapers or in horror at the relevance of everything said about wealthy human governments mishandling environmental crises. But, hey, if none of the reflection on the current extinction of many animal species and humanity’s role within it appeals to you, at least the play features a needle drop of The Mamas & The Papas’ tune, California Dreamin’, when you would least expect it.