ACT 1
An announcer reports the news, including an update on the coming of a second Ice Age and the glacier approaching New Jersey. The scene transitions to the home of “a typical American family”: George and Maggie Antrobus; their children, Henry and Gladys; and their maid, Sabina, whose opening monologue describes the family. The time period is deliberately, almost playfully, unclear, to the irritation of Sabina (who frequently breaks the fourth wall). Mr. Antrobus is expected home soon from the office, yet he has spent his day inventing the wheel and the alphabet. At the Antrobus home, a dinosaur and a woolly mammoth are household pets. When George returns home, he is accompanied by a large group of refugees, who could be contemporary unhoused individuals, but whose names include “Homer” and “Moses.” The scene concludes with everyone huddled around the dying fire, hoping to survive the cold.
ACT 2
The announcer sets the scene: Atlantic City, where Mr. Antrobus has just been elected President of the Human division of the Order of Mammals at their annual convention. It is ambiguous whether the action occurs before or after Act 1. We learn that George has awarded the title of Miss Atlantic City 1942 to Sabina, who hopes to entice him to divorce his wife and marry her. Convention attendees celebrate, while a fortune teller warns of an impending storm. Henry and Gladys go exploring, but only Gladys returns, and she is wearing red stockings, to her mother’s horror. George flirts with Sabina as the storm worsens. He then attempts to tell Maggie that he is leaving her, but Maggie responds calmly with an eloquent speech in defense of women. The fortune teller warns George that the storm means the end of the world, and at her urging George herds all the animals that are attending the Convention of mammals onto a nearby boat. Realizing that he is about to lose his family, George quickly hustles them aboard the boat as well. Henry returns when his mother calls for him by his former name. Sabina begs Maggie to take her with them, and they all sail off to safety and, perhaps, a new world.
ACT 3
(Spoilers ahead!)
Sabina enters, calling to Mrs. Antrobus and Gladys that “the war’s over,” but the scene is interrupted by the stage manager and the actor playing George. They break the fourth wall to inform us, the audience, that seven actors are ill, and that backstage crew members will be coming on in the play’s final moments to represent the planets and various philosophers. The scene resumes, and Sabina reunites with Maggie and Gladys (who now has a baby). Sabina tells them that Mr. Antrobus is alive and will return home that afternoon, and that he has forbidden Henry to set foot in the house. But when Henry returns soon after, Maggie welcomes him. When George arrives, he and Henry agree to an uneasy truce. The crew members cross the stage, speaking the words of the philosophers, and Sabina repeats her opening monologue before addressing the audience one last time.
FUN FACTS ABOUT
The Skin Of Our Teeth
The name “Antrobus” closely resembles the Greekwork for “man”: anthropos.