El León Literary Arts: Bite The Hand, Gavan Daws

Gavan Daws’ compellingly innovative first play is a heady mix of language and movement: a verbal and physical comedy of control capsizing, with interspecies pratfalls, and at the same time an active meditation on nature and science, freedom and subjection. Set in a marine research lab, two dolphins (played by dancers) and their scientist keepers mix language and movement to create a drama that is "enacted within a breathing and buoyant metaphor." (Paul Theroux)

Critical Praise

Brilliant, searching, original, and lit by a coruscating wit. Bite the Hand is a work of startling invention and revelation.

—W.S. Merwin, author of The Folding Cliffs

Fresh, funny, intelligent, allusive and beyond Stoppard in being enacted within a breathing and buoyant metaphor.

—Paul Theroux, author of Dark Star Safari: Overland From Cairo to Cape Town

Bite the Hand is an innovative, important drama that raises searching questions about the relationships between humans and animals.

—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

Bite the Hand surpasses the legendary contributions made by George Bernard Shaw to humanity's concern for our fellow creatures. My advice to anyone still opposed to animal rights is twofold: First, if you happen to have the script in your possession, burn it. Second, if you happen to have tickets to the play, don't go. Bite the Hand will change your life.

—Tom Regan, author of Empty Cages: The Future of Animal Rights

Biography

GAVAN DAWS has written eleven books, published worldwide in a life that has taken him back and forth between the United States and Australia, with stints in Asia and Europe. His documentary films have won awards internationally; his songs have been performed at the Hollywood Bowl and the Waikiki Shell, and in clubs from San Francisco to Greenwich Village.

Books by GAVAN DAWS are also available at ALibris and Longtitude Books