When I saw King Lear With Sheep (https://garethjames.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/king-lear-with-sheep), they peed and pooed just after it started. At the Royal Court, the goats took almost 2.5 hours, just before the end, and even then it was only No. 2’s.
The play is set in a Syrian village. The sons of most of the families are in the Syrian army. Some, like the local party official, believe they are willing conscripts fighting for the honour of their country. Others, like the school teacher, believe they are modern day cannon fodder and bait for the terrorists, who have been enlisted against their will. This divides families, the village, and probably the country.
We start at the martyrs ceremony, where the families of the dead soldiers are each given a goat as a tribute. Revelations unfold and feed the divisions, the most dramatic of which is the knowledge that when soldiers are captured, they are forced to call their parents, telling them they themselves have captured a terrorist and asking them what they should do to them. Whatever the parent’s response is, that’s what happens to the soldier, making the parents complicit in their plight.
It’s still in preview and a bit messy and rambling in both design and staging, though in some ways that suits the chaos that is Syria, but it drives home its points, that the government and the terrorists are as evil as one another, and the divisions they create destroy communities and families, perhaps irreparably.
Not everyone will stomach the realities of such a tragic war, particularly as a satire, but I thought it was an effective way of helping us understand the situation in Syria, and it’s the sort of play only the Royal Court or Young Vic can do.
Gareth's Culture and Travel Blog 
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