Studio 360 : "Hominid" reenacts violence of chimpanzee colony
Monday, November 23, 2009 at 1:35PM
Alphachimp in art, chimps, podcasts, primates, sociology

SOURCE: www.topnews.in

Homo-Thespian: A new play, "Hominid," reenacts a violent incident that took place in a chimpanzee colony. Primate expert Frans de Waal and the play's actors describe what it took to stage a chimpanzee drama with a very human story.

Substituting for murderous, hairy apes is a chorus of bright and shiny affluent cultural elites in sparkling tennis whites.

The story, however, follows the same Shakespearean arc, with suicide, murder and the overthrown of a beloved leader.

Check out the very clever poster from the Emory University production featuring Charley Darwin wearing a sweet t-shirt.

Listen to the Studio 360 radio story on Hominid with Frans de Waal below:

Emory primatologist Frans van de Waal is the man responsibile for my favorite presentation EVER at Pop!Tech. This was presented less than 3 weeks before the 2004 presidential election and Chimp Politics was on display all over CNN and Fox News.

As a special treat, I got to ask Frans and his wife--and scientific partner-- what Nature wants me to do as a new parent of an newborn baby girl--a human girl, of course.

Below is a clip of the unflappable Frans de Waal explaining to the hysterical Cobert that he is, indeed, a large primate without a tail, aka. an ape.

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