Includes an essay by the author, My zoo story following the main text.
Summary:
"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, to children, donors, and protestors alike, the aging Sri Lankan elephant Matara. Matara, having recently lost her companion elephant Cheerio, is deteriorating by the day. A petition is being signed to try to force the zoo to move Matara to an elephant sanctuary, but Karen, Matara's keeper, argues adamantly that the zoo is Matara's home and her family, and that she is not strong enough to travel. Karen's entire life has been shaped by her connection to these wild animals and mourns the possible loss of the urban humans ability to connect with animals such as this. Romney, the enthusiastic but increasingly stressed media consultant, is more concerned about donations and galas for the zoo than the life of the elephant. Marcel, an international graduate student struggling in the last stages of his thesis and working at the zoo as a security guard to pay for school, understands the perspective of the protestors even as he seeks to protect the zoo employees from their more volatile protests. Weaving between the three perspectives of public relations, zoo's as spaces of learning and wonder, and the question of whether or not zoos should exist at all, Conni Massing's latest play takes inspiration from the real life circumstances that surround Lucy, the lone elephant at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, sparking debate and protest locally as well as nationally and internationally. Matara asks poignant questions about our relationships with animals and the power dynamics and instability that surround them."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.