The Haymaker theater company is taking a bite out of Durham’s thriving arts community. Starting October 20, Manbites Dog Theater will present Living with the Tiger, Haymaker’s first performance in the Durham area.
Living with the Tiger focuses on the intersecting lives of a man and woman who both want to domestically own a tiger. The play’s storyline hinges on an unknown bit of trivia: almost twice as many tigers live in captivity as in the wild. In the U.S. alone, about 5,000 tigers are privately owned, while only around 3,000 roam free worldwide. This niche of the population has been explored in animal documentaries, but Haymaker is bringing the peculiar sensation into the creative sphere.
Akiva Fox, one-third of the Haymaker theater troupe, is quick to point out that Tiger is not intended for an audience that has experience with tigers, but rather serves as a platform on which to build characters and focus a plotline.
“Living with tigers is just the hook,” said Fox, who, along with his company co-founders, placed more emphasis on creating compelling characters. “If we wanted these characters to be interesting, we had to ask ourselves, what would we do in these circumstances?”
For Haymaker, this required gathering research about the animal, which included a visit to Carolina’s Tiger Rescue, a nonprofit organization whose aim is to rescue and protect wildcats. Speaking about the experience, Fox said that the proximity to an actual tiger allowed him to empathize with tiger owners.
“It’s not like a zoo, because the tigers are two feet away from you on the other side of the fence,” he said. “It’s an incredibly special feeling, and you say to yourself, ‘I totally get it.’”
The initial inspiration for the project came when Fox stumbled across an Animal Planet special that featured a man who kept the exotic animal as a pet in his Harlem apartment. As Fox gathered information for the play, which included interviewing tiger owners, he saw the transformative effects that the animals had on their caretakers.
“For them, it’s like a mystical experience. Being this close to the tiger makes them feel powerful and unique,” he said. “For them, the process of getting this tiger literally became an American act of pursuing your own kind of happiness.”
Chasing the American dream is an idea Fox knows well. Along with company members Emily Hill and Dan VanHoozer, he quit his Washington, D.C. job and, after hearing of Durham’s diversity and recent population growth, relocated to the area to start the Haymaker theater company. The trio was attracted to the Triangle because of its burgeoning theater community, which aligned with Haymaker’s vision of performing in more modest venues.
“We like putting on plays for smaller audiences because it’s a more immediate reaction,” Fox said. “We wanted to make stuff that was small and potent and was going to reach fewer people, but was going to be surprising and entertaining for them.”
While Living with the Tiger prides itself on an unusual premise, the play’s connection to its audience lies in how it approaches shared American values and reflects current attitudes through the lens of an exclusionary lifestyle.
“You don’t have to own a tiger to enjoy this play,” Fox said. “I think anyone who’s ever thought about what’s next in their life or wanted to be a part of something bigger or felt unsatisfied with where they are or taken a crazy risk will enjoy this play.”
Haymaker will present Living with the Tiger at Manbites Dog Theater as part of the theater’s Other Voices series Oct. 20-22, 26-29 and Nov. 2-5 at 8:15pm and Oct. 23 and 30 at 3:15pm.
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