Agatha an artist is married to Terry they live in a run-down apartment block. There's a knock at the door, Agatha answers it; it's a postman who complains about dogs. She takes a package for Mr. Holtz who's not home then a few moments later Eric their neighbor - a budding writer experiencing a creative block - comes round to visit. The three were going to drink tea but Terry suggests a bottle of red wine instead that he was 'saving for a special occasion'.

Once they start drinking Agatha and Eric have an argument about time. Eric then informs both of them that there are rats in the cellar who might make their way up the building to their floor, interestingly Eric once had a rat that died when he was younger, he also has a friend that works with rats apparently. All this talk about the creatures evokes some heated debate about the unwanted new comers and reveals Agatha's animosity towards the outsiders. Her reluctance to accept the rats and help welcome them in her home hits a nerve with Eric and sees him immediately rush to their defence prompting him to ask Agatha: what if they were people?

As more action unfolds we are treated to captivating moments of dance where Agatha is trapped in the kitchen and wants to break free. As she tries to rid herself from the torment of routine the two men discuss the effects of the ever growing invasive technology that surrounds them, Eric lifts the lid on politics, failed revolutions and why utopia's will never work. Together they meditate on humans obsession with celebrities, fame culture, death, and the anxiety it creates. Eric has an epiphany about how we should all follow our instincts more, humans he feels are caught and he questions why they are so readily willing to use violence to give meaning to their lives.
 

The three characters plead with each other in unison to gain some kind of connection and control, at times they are caught in a trance like states of ritualistic ceremony accompanied by the shows soundtrack of voice overs, ambient beats, droning and erratic singing. As the piece draws to a close Terry opens up to Eric about his dead Granddad. When leaving Eric informs us he had a bad dream last night, so did Agatha evidently which leaves us questioning if all this is connected.

In this intriguing new one act play by Dean A. Reeve, performed by the theater company 'Gräy Matters' we invite the audience to go inside a new world, a rare snippet, a glimpse into the lives of three very different captivating characters, people with seemingly ordinary lives on the surface.

'Rats' is a visual, visceral and audio awakening I hope to give light to some of these questions: Can we ever truly be free? Do we really want to be? Will a real revolution forever be an exotic fetish? What can we learn from the behavior of rats and our relationship to them? Why does violence give some humans meaning? This is an original show written by myself alone and pulls together my background of dance and words I let my company run wild to explore these themes. Through a thorough and unconventional way we will take the audience on a journey, lead them into a world away from their own that is non specific to any era but where eerily all to similar questions arise about the state of the Zeitgeist we find ourselves in. Like all good theater I hope not provide solid answers but give each audience member their own unique view of the show - as they are free to move about and not just sit in one place for the whole hour - this should give them a chance to look at themselves and ask questions about who they are, the world around them and why we are the way we are.

As the drama unravels the audience watch as the characters navigate circumstances beyond their control, what does the unexpected arrival of 'rats' say about them and the questions and mysteries inside the human soul, our need for more, our refusal to face the arbitrariness of life. Between understanding nuances of our inability to get along and the constant search for meaning by doing whatever it takes to validate that predicament we find ourselves in, we're right here! All this as the wine keeps flowing alongside dance, black humor absurdest tension, serious thought provoking dialogue intertwined with poetic prose, vivid imagery and brave, risky physical theater.
Using this cocktail as the perfect driving force of our creation, let Gräy Matters take you there!