Wakka Wakka theatre company’s Dead as a Dodo will make its New York premiere January 8-February 9, 2025 at Baruch PAC. Written and directed by Wakka Wakka co-Artistic Directors Gwendolyn Warnock and Kirjan Waage, the work is presented in association with Baruch PAC and the Under the Radar theatre festival. 

Set deep within the underworld, the work follows two skeleton friends, a dodo bird and a boy, as they tirelessly dig for bones. When the dodo suddenly sprouts feathers, a wave of transformation begins among the dead. 

The ensemble will include Alexandra Bråss, Lei Lei Bavoil, Dorothy James, Andy Manjuck, Hanna Magrete Muir, Sigurd Rosenberg, Peter Russo, Marie Skogvang-Stork, Anna Soland, Kirjan Waage, and Olivia Zerphy.

“We created the world of this show based on Tales From the Crypt, Dante’s Inferno, and old Silly Symphonies cartoons,” Warnock and Waage said in a joint statement. “As a species, our relationship with death has changed over time, from early humanity until the present day. In our lifetime, the birth and growth of AI, gene editing, and biotechnology have all thrust us into new realities and ideas of what is possible. Science is now looking at resurrecting the extinct. Dead as a Dodo engages with this new present, and the future that will come of it. In a mostly cartoonish way, it exposes our most basic fears and desires, wrestling with our need for love, our fight for survival, and our quest for immortality.”

Dead as a Dodo is a co-production with Nordland Visual Theatre, Nord University, and The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival; and funded by the Arts Council of Norway and FFUK. Baruch PAC’s presentation is made possible with support from The Jim Henson Foundation.

Click here for tickets.