Noah and the Great Auk

The book includes the fanciful costume and make-up designs of artist Ruth Ann Doughty—and the details of execution which launched the widely acclaimed original production. This play makes a contemporary theatre of Noah, dealing with endangered species, and every child in each of us, working both drama and comedy out of universal material. On an earth that is an ark, and a present which is the past, we ship aboard Noah's original ark in search of survival. Here there is an auk, shielding her solitary egg for the future. Amid many animals, we meet a ewe, a bear, a lion and a villainous hyena. The wise little auk makes an alliance with Noah on behalf of everyone. In a shipboard mutiny inspired by the hyena, the auk loses her own life to save Noah and mankind. Under a rainbow, the survivors—and a guarded auk egg debark onto a fragile world and an uncertain future which is the present. An American play of humor and danger, Noah and the Great Auk is worthy of comparison with Reynard the Fox of Europe.