Evening performance: Confessions of a Former Monkey Mind Doctor

by Daniel Povinelli and Brandon Barker featuring Scott Gremillion and Katryn Schmidt (Ringauditorium, Philosophicum, 2 Jakobi Street, at 7 pm, Friday June 9th), sponsored by http://im-possiblethink.com/confessions/

FREE OF CHARGE

Once upon a time, in a not-too-unlikely present, scientists decide to "test" the ancient Aesopian fable of the Crow and the Pitcher. To their surprise, the scientists "discover" that crows can be trained to drop pebbles into a half-filled test tube to raise the water level high enough to get a drink. What was thought for 2,000 years to be a fabulist's fancy, overnight becomes a scientific sensation. The Science of Animal Folklore is born. Researchers soon prove that ants actually will refuse to share food with lazy grasshoppers, that tortoises really can outrace hares, and that foxes definitely are able to tell the difference between a real lion, and an Ass that's dressed like one.

Scientists soon declare that fables, myths, and proverbs cradle the truth of animal minds, and the world of professional folklorists splits at the seams. On one side, the animalists swallow the science hook, line, and sinker. On the other, the humanists smell a rat. There's only one possible solution: convene a special meeting of the International Folklore Society to get to the bottom of it.

As the plays begins, we learn that the infamous ape psychologist, Doctor Fomomindo, has been called out of retirement to deliver the opening lecture. To everyone's surprise, he shows up with his trained female chimpanzee, Mojo. But just as Fomomindo starts, a letter arrives announcing that the Global Anthropological Society has voted to give apes full personhood. Amid the ensuing chaos, Fomomindo presses on with his lecture-turned autobiographical-confession, fending off dissenters from all sides as he dissects the science of human-animal relations. In the end, he must help Mojo make a decision: should she accept humanity's invitation to become a person . . . or not?  No simple answers await them.

This play is part of a larger series of events this weekend under the heading ‘Folklorists are Fallible’. Other events include these public lectures, both in room 212, 16 Ülikooli Street:

June 9th, 9:30am

  • Carl Lindahl (Houston) – Folklorists are Fallible: Stumbling into Glory with Richard Dorson and J.D. Suggs

June 10th, 10:00am

  • Karina Lukin (Helsinki, Finland) – When the Field Strikes Back: Unwinding the Past and Contemporary Silences in Folklore Studies

More information: Jonathan Roper, jonathan.roper@ut.ee, Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore

 

 
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