The Insect Play

The Insect Play

90 mins | Drama, Music | May 29, 1939

A tramp falls asleep in the woods. He dreams of observing a range of insects that stand in for various human characteristics in terms of their lifestyle and morality: the flighty, vain butterfly, the obsequious, self-serving dung beetle, the ants, whose increasingly mechanized behavior leads to a militaristic society.

The Insect Play

90 mins | Drama, Music | May 29, 1939

The Insect Play
A tramp falls asleep in the woods. He dreams of observing a range of insects that stand in for various human characteristics in terms of their lifestyle and morality: the flighty, vain butterfly, the obsequious, self-serving dung beetle, the ants, whose increasingly mechanized behavior leads to a militaristic society.
Producers BBC
Original title The Insect Play
Directors Stephen Thomas
Writers Clifford Bax, Josef Čapek, Karel Čapek

Cast

Wilfrid Grantham

as The Lepidopterist / First Snail

Edmund Willard

as The Tranp

Pamela Standish

as The Chrysalis

Frank Birch

as Mr. Beetle / Commander of the Yellows

Maire O'Neill

as Mrs. Beetle / Philanthropist

Charles Peters

as Robber Beetle/Journalist

Rupert Bruce Lockhart

as The Ichneumon Fly / Inventor

Sheila Kay

as The Larva

Leslie French

as Mr. Cricket / Second Snail

Wendy Toye

as Mrs. Cricket

Wilfred Franks

as The Blind Ant Timekeeper

Geoffrey Wincott

as The Parasite