BATS Theatre 2010 STAB Season

Gene Pool: The aftermath of human evolution

Set in the not too distant future, a time when advancing genetic technology is challenging our sense of what it means to be human, Gene Pool is a visceral meditation on the nature of existence.

Following a worldwide pandemic and subsequent medical disaster, humanity has suffered substantial losses, perhaps even been annihilated. Somewhere in New Zealand, an abandoned shed holds the last vestige of a creator's dream. A giant incubator containing the final experiment of a leading genetic engineer. A human being.

Alone, he is born from this artificial womb; alone he must make the discoveries vital to survival - his body, his soul, his self. The machine acts as a surrogate, seemingly alive - and he must find ways to understand and communicate with the machine in order to finally break the bonds of his own need and forge his own freedom and his own identity.

With a set created by multiple award winners WETA Workshop,this production promises to be an enthralling and enveloping experience to stimulate the senses. 

We hope that our audiences will leave with new understandings of what it is to be alive.