Matara
Rodney Cross
, Rosa Cross
, Leila Grobel
, Pamela Roberts Griffith
, Barry Kazimer
, Lisa Ostrowski
, Linda Leitch
, Jude Castillo
, Marilyn Stanley
, Dawn Macdonald
, Mary Therrien
, Agnes Marshall
, Beth Dekoker
, Noelle Walsh
, Joshua Lewis
, Andrea Pole
, Natasa Ilic
, Sarah Schwartz
, Patricia Johnson
, Dani Kat
, Claudie Léveillé
, Margo Beredjiklian
, Stacy Stafford
, Amanda Schempp
, Hoda Montazeri
, Alice Meems
, Roland Schigas
, Melissa Kohlman
, Joe Mitchell
, Karen Nordrum
, Karen Kendrick
, Bob Paterson-watt
, Heather Belliveau
, Prabh Toor
, Mairi Lester
, Kym Marsh
, Rhona Brinkman
, Christopher Evans
, Tiffany C
, Christine Lion
, Susan Baues
, Diana Richardson
, Sandra Storey
, BJ Underwood
, Anne Range
, Robert Hykawy
, Denise Duvall
, Paula Ritchie
, Claire Gear
, Pam Keetch
, Randi Ann Doll
, Laura Patterson
, Ellen Clarke
, Deb Philippon
, Tyra Antle
, Lisa Mallia
, Mary Danieli
, Trish Bowering
, Sandra Perry
, Ken Gilmour
, Andrea Gillespie
, Crystal Inwood
, Melissa Poremba
, Irenee R Anderson
, Kim Cappellina
, Deana Bueley
, Nicki D'Angelo
, Sarah Van Dyk
, PATRICIA SOPEL
, Gabrielle Wolfe
, Shari Dalton
, Paula Adam
, Maureen Brownlee
, Michelle Onyango
, Margaret McKay
, Yolande Thivierge
, Laura Peters
, Peter Halasz
, Maria Mclean
, Janet Meisner
, Rebecca Dixon
, Lynn Andrews
, Susan Jang
, Judith Pearson
, Pat Johnston
, diana kirkwood
, Rose Ghaedi
, Benita Hartwell
, Janice Cournoyer
, Anne Baldo
editor@49thshelf.com
At a crumbling zoo, an elephant keeper, a security guard, and a newly hired media consultant have differing views over what should be done about the zoo's main attraction, the aging Sri Lankan elephant Matara. Matara is deteriorating by the day following the loss of her companion elephant Cheerio and a petition is circulating to try to force the zoo's management to move her to a sanctuary. Karen, Matara's keeper, argues adamantly that the zoo is Matara's home and family, and that she is not strong enough to travel. Romney, the enthusiastic but increasingly stressed media consultant, thinks more about donations and galas than Matara's life, while Marcel the security guard and an international graduate student struggling in the last stages of his thesis, understands the perspective of the protestors even as he seeks to protect the zoo's employees.
Weaving between the perspectives of public relations, zoos as unique spaces of human animal interaction, and the question of whether or not zoos should exist at all, Conni Massing's latest play takes inspiration from real life debates that surround Lucy, the lone elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, asking poignant questions about our relationships with animals, and the power dynamics and instability that surround them.
