The short novel by Horace McCoy They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? was published in the United States in 1935 and immediately attracted both the readers and the critics. It is inspired by the Great Depression on the American and European continents in 1920-ies and the beginning of 1930-ies, after the market crash which brought financial ruin to millions of people on both sides of the ocean. The story itself revolves around several dance couples who compete at a dance marathon, trying to endure on the dance floor as long as possible in order to win the first prize and start a new life. They are all unemployed, desperate, hungry, but also stubborn in sticking to their dreams. On the dance floor and around it all layers of society are shown, stripped to bare skin in the unsparing struggle for survival.
The director Ivica Boban has adapted the novel for the stage and, together with the Drama Ensemble, will ask questions about our contemporary humanity, morality, empathy, ethics, moral values, selling of both our bodies and our souls for a moment of glory, false hopes, splendour and misery of the stage, dignity and friendship.
