Introduction to the work:

They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? is set during the Great Depression in California, when struggling Americans became increasingly more desperate for money in order to afford basic necessities. Becoming increasingly more desperate, people started turning to schemes, such as dance marathons, for a chance at survival. The play follows Gloria, a cynical young woman exhausted by disappointment who wishes to be a movie star, and Robert, a quiet country-boy drifter who dreams of being a film maker and becomes her dance partner. We also meet many of the other couples and follow their suffering and their stories. As the marathon stretches on for weeks, the contestants are pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points, manipulated by emcees who turn their suffering into spectacle. The dance floor becomes a stark reflection of a society willing to exploit desperation for entertainment. Gloria’s bleak outlook intensifies as she faces the futility of escaping poverty and selfish people, while the marathon’s relentless pace exposes the vulnerabilities and hidden fears of everyone involved. In underlining the thin line between endurance and exploitation, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? offers a haunting portrait of human desperation and the heavy toll of hope in a time of profound economic despair.