Why did I read this? Because apparently Paul Zindel's grandson is suing Guillermo del Toro over the similar story line this play has with del Toro's "Shape of Water". I LOVED reading Paul Zindel as a teen, mostly his Zone Unknown books ("Loch" is totally on my personal bookshelf at home). I also really enjoy Daniel Kraus who also writes teen books that I thoroughly enjoy. Kraus was the one who gave the story idea for Shape of Water to del Toro in 2011. These two authors that I love are kind of similar. Kraus is more gory and specific with his imagery, but I loved both for their monster horror and sometimes bloody and graphic descriptions of people being killed by monsters. So I decided to read this play for myself to determine whether Kraus may have "borrowed" the story line.

My answer? No. Not at all. Similarities: a lady works as a janitor in a lab facility that is currently experimenting on a dolphin to try and teach it how to speak. The experiment is a (supposed) failure and the dolphin is scheduled to be killed. That's where the similarities end.

I've never read any of Zindel's plays (I guess Pigman counts) and it wasn't that fun to read. Short, but pretty blah.

Spoiler

Heck, Helen doesn't even seem too concerned in trying to save the dolphin, and the ending is left open with no one saving anything, really. Sure, she seems sickened to learn about the (unreal) and cruel ways they treat their experiments, but it's the dolphin itself that makes a half-hearted attempt to try and escape.

Helen is not deaf. She doesn't fall in love with the dolphin or any kind of sea creature, there's no grand escapes, there's no character development or a diverse cast (like there is in the movie).

So no, it is an eerily similar plot but not enough to sue over, IMHO.