Lately, it feels as though the full moon never sets. People behave so strangely—one could even say, wildly.

Are the struggles for greater economic gain, power, and popularity truly the peak of human development? Is this the result of evolutionary intelligence? Or is competition driven by genetic information encoded in us—to fight for survival and the spread of our genetic material? Is it possible to resist the selfishness of genes? And what, then, should an empathetic society strive toward?

Choreographer Vladimirs Goršantovs, together with his creative team, inspired by Richard Dawkins’ book “The Selfish Gene”, has explored how human behaviour resonates with or differs from that of animals. With ironic elements, references to everyday and global situations, and a depiction worthy of National Geographic, the performance reveals the struggle between individual will and the commands of genes.