The Insect Play

The Insect Play (1939)

Music, Drama1 hour and 30 minutes
NR
User score
Description

A tramp falls asleep in the woods. He dreams of observing a range of insects that stand in for various human characteristics in terms of their lifestyle and morality: the flighty, vain butterfly, the obsequious, self-serving dung beetle, the ants, whose increasingly mechanized behavior leads to a militaristic society.

Clifford Bax
Adaptation
Josef Čapek
Writer
Stephen Thomas
Director
Karel Čapek
Writer

Actors

Wilfrid Grantham
Wilfrid Grantham
The Lepidopterist / First Snail
Edmund Willard
Edmund Willard
The Tranp
Pamela Standish
Pamela Standish
The Chrysalis
Frank Birch
Frank Birch
Mr. Beetle / Commander of the Yellows
Maire O'Neill
Maire O'Neill
Mrs. Beetle / Philanthropist
Charles Peters
Charles Peters
Robber Beetle/Journalist
Rupert Bruce Lockhart
Rupert Bruce Lockhart
The Ichneumon Fly / Inventor
Sheila Kay
Sheila Kay
The Larva
Leslie French
Leslie French
Mr. Cricket / Second Snail
Wendy Toye
Wendy Toye
Mrs. Cricket
Wilfred Franks
Wilfred Franks
The Blind Ant Timekeeper
Geoffrey Wincott
Geoffrey Wincott
The Parasite
Status

Released

Original language

English

Budget

—

Revenue

—

Keywords
dance