In a small-town pub, six amateur actors gather for a rehearsal of Karel Čapek’s play, in which insects behave like humans and humans like insects. As the rehearsal unfolds, the boundaries between the actors’ real lives and their fictional roles begin to blur. The director, playing the Cricket, strangles Mr Václav, his wife’s lover. Mr Kopřiva, as the Parasite, devours Miss Jitka, who plays the Larva. Mr Borovička becomes so completely absorbed in his role as a beetle that he abandons his human form for good. Birth and death unfold as time loses all meaning, in a darkly surreal world where the line between human and insect gradually disappears.
