Animal Within examines Americans' deep anxiety that originates in our unilateral approach to world politics and the global economy. Sarah scooting on a dolly and scribbling currency figures on the wall is an example of our frenetic internal panic. Kevin, like a bear obsessively worrying at a carcass, repeatedly returns to taping a box until its thickly layered mass provides him temporary solace from fear.

The work's visual vocabulary and soundscape are drawn from the world—collaged from the sounds and rituals we think sooth our anxiety but in fact tend to feed it. In Animal Within these sources are pulled apart and rearranged to expose what everybody knows intuitively but rarely acknowledges—we're in trouble.

The soundscape samples college marching-bands and amplified live sounds. The text comes from sources like the found poetry in the clipped urgency of the headlines from e-mcm.com, a website for currency analysts and traders, carrying shorthand references to world leaders and their currency maneuverings:

• Lira muted with all eyes still on EU Summit


• Lula's foot dragging over the crucial CB


• USD/Asians fell across the board in late afternoon


• IMF said such a move would come from a position of strength

The action and visual vocabulary of the work is informed by images like Tyler Hicks' photographs of the pre-war Baghdad Stock Exchange, where stock prices are handwritten on boards.

The play closes with an actor holding a iconographic sculpture of burning American home.