Ants and other Strong Things is a powerful piece of theatre, set in a dystopian near-ish future. It’s c2050, and following wars, riots, a climate crisis, and the collapse of multiple governments, much of the world, or at least this play’s version of the USA, is being run by the extremely shadowy International Cyberspace Order, or ICO as it is referred to for the majority of the performance.
People mostly don’t own anything, and the ICO has devised what amounts to a state-sanctioned protection racket, which allows you to pass through the streets in safety. If anyone who hasn’t paid the ‘protection fee’ comes near you, you can report them for making you feel threatened. It is made very clear who ‘the people’ – by which is meant the white, cis-gendered, able bodied, heterosexual population – should be afraid of: people of colour; muslims; children; and queer people. The approved members of the population should definitely be afraid of queer people – after all, won’t someone think of the children?
Living authentically, and without fear in this hellscape that seems far too close to the developing situation in the current United States, takes an awful lot of courage. Charlie works at a bar that has been marked as ‘undesirable’, because it is a queer space. So persecuted are gay people in this reality, that they cannot openly label these spaces as gay bars, and must guard their safety intently.
Into Charlie’s (Magdalena Skerencak) shift behind the bar comes Maya (Tabares Manuela). Charlie is initially cautious: Maya could be an undercover ICO operative. She’s not, and slowly, trust is built, and we follow the pair as they slowly, hesitantly, enter into a relationship.
Whilst Charlie and Maya are just trying to live their lives, the dystopia continues to swirl around them. A feature of the ICO’s oversight is that all citizens must participate in ‘The Count’. Your score determines where you fit in society. We are shown Charlie’s Count. It’s not in any way clear what the ‘correct’ answers Charlie is supposed to give are, but Charlie’s result sends her down a path she never anticipated.
The theme of oppression is focused on queer people. By now, in this imagined future, same-sex marriage has been outlawed, which was probably supposed to feel unimaginable to audience members. However, this production is being staged when a case has been submitted in America, to do just that. Life is imitating fiction in a way that everyone should be wary of. But Charlie in particular is clear: it is queer people now, but it will be some other group in the future, who are marginalised, and persecuted, and driven to the worst parts of the cities.
Technically, this production is punching significantly above the expectations of its late night slot and relatively small auditorium. The video footage showing the ICO take-over and consequences is particularly well done, plunging you headlong into the world of the story at the outset, and periodically popping up like a jump-scare, to remind you that Charlie and Maya are being observed everywhere they go.
Whilst this may all sound very dark, there are numerous funny moments in the script, and quite a lot of wordplay and puns around the names of various insects.
This is an exceptional piece of theatre that is well worth seeking out in the late hours of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe.
Ants And Other Strong Things continues at The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall at 23:20 daily, until August 23
Follow Limbo Pins theatre, makers of the show, here: https://www.instagram.com/limbopins/
