The Lobster considers

Show & Culture

In a government-certified kitchen, food consumption is bureaucratised and pleasure is administratively inconvenient. Every morning, State Points Auditor Vetch checks the cauldron’s water temperature when Citizen M comes to claim her lobster, earned through Alimentary Merit Points. While M secretly hopes to finally feel something, Vetch’s long-repressed desires begin to surface. The Lobster, sitting in its pot and refusing to boil as expected, also tries to determine whether it can feel something when boiled alive. Loosely inspired by David Foster Wallace’s essay Consider the Lobster, this dystopian play explores ethics and consumerism, pleasure and restraint, and the mechanisms of uncertainty behind our choices. Anne Simon tackles the subject in a grotesque and discursive style.