An environmentalist satire
In an eco-totalitarian future, a classics student finds out
she’s pregnant with a rhinoceros
Ad Bestias, by Francesca Sarah Toich, is about people's fear. Our fear that the mistakes and shortcomings of today will carry into an irreparable tomorrow. In the story, this fear reaches surrealistic heights, each situation more grimly absurd than the last, with characters who border on caricature hoisting themselves on their own petard. It is a darkly comic and entertaining novel. Engaging in its wry, terrifying science fiction, Ad Bestias is also something of a philosophical meditation. In its evocation of a future society intent on liberating Nature from Man, punctuated by forays into classical myth and the Pre-Socratics, the novel leaves us pondering: when and how did Man detach himself from Nature?
THE STORY
Paris, in the not-so-distant future. Maya is pregnant with a white rhinoceros. Like most other women living under the totalitarian environmentalist Regime, she’s been forced to incubate an endangered, non-human animal species. In the face of ecological calamity, the Regime seeks to restore sovereignty to Nature, to the detriment of mankind. Science and technology have become weapons of human self-extinction.
When Maya’s destiny collides with that of Clement, the brilliant doctor overseeing her pregnancy, they embark on a journey that will test the boundaries of natural law and change the fate of the entire planet.
The Italian audiobook version, released in May 2022, is performed by Francesca Sarah Toich, original music by David Rampillon.
theatre
Ad Bestias is currently being adapted for the stage by Marcozzi Contemporary Theatre, under the title “Monstrous”. The play premiered in Berlin, Germany, in December 2022.
Inspired by Toich's novel Ad Bestias, ‘Monstrous’ is set in a dystopian eco-dictatorship. The piece investigates different forms of pregnancy: women are artificially inseminated with animals, plants, minerals, emotions, natural phenomena and behaviors useful to the eco-regime. Masks, dance, spoken word and live music are orchestrated to explore metamorphosis as a force that puts humans in an unavoidable relationship with other living and non living creatures.
ad bestias by francesca sarah toich
Novel
Podcast
Theatre
Screening play
Francesca Sarah Toich is an Italian artist who lives and works in Paris. Specialized in classical Italian literature, she has been recognized as one of the best interpreters of Dante’s Divine Comedy, winning the Lauro Dantesco award in Ravenna. She performed Goldoni's L'Uomo di Mondo at the Pushkin Museum and GITIS Conservatory in Moscow, and Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice on tour twice in the United States. Her last novel, Ad Bestias, has been adapted for the stage and released as a podcast in several laguages. She has lectured on Commedia dell'Arte at Yale and Montclair Universities. Her performance work has been presented at Tokyo Wonder Site (Tokyo), the Venice Biennale and Centre Pompidou-IRCAM (Paris), among others. Francesca Sarah Toich performs in Italian, English and French.
ILLUMINA FILM
Executive Production
Consultancy
Illumina Film is a video production company based in Venice, Italy, specialized in commercial and documentary work. Since 2012 we’ve been creating and producing immersive, emotional audio-visual contents for high-end clients, ranging from storytelling for brands such as Renato Balestra, The Merchant of Venice, Hausbrandt, and art & culture documentaries for art galleries, foundations and cultural institutions such as La Biennale di Venezia, Save Venice, Guggenheim Foundation.
