Northern Manhattan’s UP Theater Company presents a different kind of animal farm in the world premiere of Lizzie Donahue’s A Barn Play, directed by Leslie Kincaid Burby. This timely and darkly comic fable explores the power of creating art amidst oppression when a cast of farm animals rehearses their show. Owl (Rik Walter*) attempts to rehearse his new play with a lively and opinionated ensemble of farm animals: Chicken (April J. Barber), Pig (Ariel Blake), Dog (Adam Burby), Cow (Erin Nelson), Sheep (Mary Albert), and Cat (Denisse Estefany Mendoza). Tensions flare when a crisis befalls the animals and the ensemble rejects Owl’s arty attempt for one of their own devising – one that sheds light on our own relationships with animals, children, and art.