There’s new play at Emory University in Atlanta. It is a true story of murder, suicide, and the overthrow of a beloved leader – sort of a modern-day MacBeth. The play, called Hominid, has 14 actors, 12 of them portray chimpanzees.

The bloody incident took place in a colony of captive chimps on an island in the Netherlands. Franz De Waal, a primatologist at Emory University, recounted the struggle in his book Chimpanzee Politics. And he advised Atlanta’s Out of Hand Theater in adapting it for the stage.