The Animals Come to the Table

What is The Animals Come to the Table about?

The Animals Come to the Table asks a simple, startling question: what would happen if nature grabbed the mic? In this world premiere at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, running 11 December 2026 to 24 January 2027, the lights go out, the animals arrive, and humanity is summoned to the negotiating table. A negotiator and an interpreter are called to a secret emergency meeting, where a chicken, a rat, a snow leopard and an army of voices from the natural world demand an end to exploitation and ecological destruction.

Who wrote The Animals Come to the Table?

The play is a bold new work from Timberlake Wertenbaker, one of the UK's leading playwrights, whose works including Our Country's Good, The Love of the Nightingale and Jefferson's Garden are studied and performed worldwide. Written specifically for the candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, it brings together politics, wit, philosophy and mischief in an audacious experiment of stepping into someone else's shoes.

Who is in the cast?

The world premiere is led by Annette Badland, of Ted Lasso and Doctor Who, as Bea, with Olivier Huband as Pan, Lydia Larson as Maude, Finbar Lynch as Percy, Simon Manyonda as Tony and Alex Young as Anna, alongside Rosalind Ford and Tobias Martin-Clarke. It is directed by Anthony Lau, with designs by Georgia Lowe, candlelight design by Elliott Griggs, composition by Asaf Zohar and movement direction by Aline David.

When is The Animals Come to the Table playing?

The world premiere runs from 11 December 2026 to 24 January 2027 at Shakespeare's Globe on Bankside. Funny, furious and unsettling, it imagines the moment the earth finally answers back.