ANIMATION, POLITICS,
AND THE ART OF BEING HUMAN

Cameron Darwin Bossert’s The Animals Speak closes his Disney-centered trilogy A Venomous Color (produced by Thirdwing) which began with The Fairest in 2021 and continued with Burbank in 2022. This final installment, now playing at The Wild Project, ventures far beyond the animation desks, landing on a 1941 goodwill tour through Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, a government-sponsored mission to counter Nazi influence in South America. Walt Disney, played by Bossert, is joined by hilarious animators Frank Thomas (Adam Griffith) and Norman “Fergie” Ferguson (Cian Genaro); artist Mary Blair (Krysten Wagner); and Walt’s wife Lillian (Ginger Kearns) who urges everybody to just breathe and enjoy the ride.

Ginger Kearns

Bossert’s interplay between slapstick and subtle existential dread is exquisitely written and performed; Frank lounges with Fergie on a Brazilian beach, discussing American privilege and the absurd challenge of vacationing while the world crumbles. Fascism is gaining ground, millions of lives are being lost in bombings, massacres, and camps, yet here they are, earnestly dissecting the samba potential of a cartoon duck. Griffith fully inhabits Fergie’s high-strung, sweat-drenched drive for productivity, while Genaro plays the straight man who cannot resist poking the bear, his friend, with true gusto. Together, they are so convincing in their rhythm and rapport, they often blur into the very cartoons they created.

Cian Genaro & Krysten Wagner

Lillian and Mary, instead, form an unlikely bond, two women from very different worlds finding common ground in a society not built for them. With a mix of poise and bite, Kearns portrays Lillian as the smartest person in the room, exhausted but unflinching, and never short on dry humor. Mary, a working-class younger artist who married into old money, didn’t walk out with the other animators during the current strike, and she gets teased for being “too classy.” Wagner’s Mary is awkward and charming, forever caught in that in-between: not quite one of the guys, like Frank and Fergie, not a working class artist like the strikers, and not fully accepted as part of the upper ranks. The war created a huge financial crisis and when money got tight, Disney and his brother Roy started cutting everyone’s pay. That, plus Walt being kind of bossy, led to a full-on animators’ strike in 1941 that lasted five weeks, a subject that keeps popping up.

Ginger Kearns & Krysten Wagner

Adam Griffith & Krysten Wagner

Walt, for his part, receives news from home that temporarily pulls him away from business worries, revealing moments of vulnerability beneath his relentless drive. Bossert gives the character a very human touch, less mythic mogul and more man wrestling with doubt and hope. Walt’s obsession with butts, which Lillian mocks relentlessly, is also a glimpse into how ego protects vulnerability; Walt clings to ideas, no matter how trivial, because stillness to him feels like failure. His bungled speeches spark reflections on the power of visual storytelling over rhetoric, and his resentment toward strike leader and Goofy creator Art Babbitt poses prescient questions about intellectual ownership.

Krysten Wagner, Ginger Kearns, Cameron Darwin Bossert, Cian Genaro & Adam Griffith

Krysten Wagner & Ginger Kearns

The last part of the play includes conversations with their Chilean host Jorge Delano (Felipe Arellano); they go into deeper philosophical territory, and the pace of the play slows noticeably. Arellano brings a cerebral energy to the moment, adding intellectual tension, but unfortunately his delivery was hard to hear, and the scene itself felt a bit redundant since much of the same ground had already been articulated through previous action and character interplay.

Ginger Kearns, Cameron Darwin Bossert

Ginger Kearns, Adam Griffith, Cameron Darwin Bossert & Cian Genaro

Yolanda Balaña’s evocative costume designs, Kia Rogers’s lighting, and Deeba Montazeri’s original music definitely enrich the play’s minimalistic world though the overall design still feels like it’s craving something bigger and more complex. The Animals Speak feels like an inventive and distinctive work-in-progress that may benefit from a director and some refinement, but it already stands on solid dramatic ground thanks to its strong script and great ensemble. Ultimately, it nudges us to take a breath, to step back from the grind of work and money and just be human for a moment even if we love our work. It mixes real history, cool animation trivia, silly cartoon energy, and bold theatrical style to drive home a message that honestly feels more relevant than ever.

Adam Griffith, Ginger Kearns, Cameron Darwin Bossert, Cian Genaro, & Krysten Wagner

Felipe Arellano & Cameron Darwin Bossert

photos by Hunter Canning

The Animals Speak
Thirdwing
The Wild Project Theatre, 195 E 3rd St.
90 minutes, no intermission
ends on August 17, 2025
for tickets ($50), visit Thirdwing