Meg Stuart investigates the social structure of the family. At the same time it represents other conditions as one nucleus of a society that is becoming more and more brutal: in this group piece, relationships of love and dependence, frustrations, violence and desire quickly follow one after another. Tenderness becomes a brawl, common happiness hysteria and a subcutaneous force fatefully joins all of those present. Freedom is found somewhere else. Doris Dziersk’s stage set – made up of a powerful tunnel weaved of twigs, a pink dog house, a drum set as well as an obligatory kitchen table and chairs – creates a playfield for the realm between the civilized and bestial. But Do Animals Cry is also an intense confrontation with theatricality, in which Stuart typifies characters and scenes and places damaged personalities on stage: the recalcitrant troublemaker; the harsh patriarch; the doe-eyed girl whose forsakenness turns into auto-aggression; and the loving, seductive matriarch. They all have a rendezvous in this wordless and sometimes cynical chamber play.