DEAD AS A DODO to be Presented at Under The Radar Festival

Drama Desk and Obie award-winning international theatre company Wakka Wakka will return to New York with the local premiere of Dead as a Dodo, presented in association with Baruch PAC and in partnership with the 2025 Under The Radar Festival. Infused with puppetry, humor, and stunning visual effects, Dead as a Dodo is a mesmerizing musical odyssey about survival, transformation, and the power of true friendship. Running January 8 – February 9, 2025, with an opening set for Friday, January 10, performances take place at Baruch PAC.

Wakka Wakka's newest creation, Dead as a Dodo, is set deep within the underworld, where two skeleton friends, a Dodo and a boy, tirelessly dig for fresh bones. Their ancient skeletal forms are deteriorating and without them they will disappear completely. One day something peculiar happens: The Dodo miraculously sprouts feathers! A wave of transformation begins, shattering the established order of the dead. As the Dodo continues to grow flesh, fear and chaos erupt. The two friends must flee, fighting to stay together as they are drawn into the heart of an epic battle between life and death.

“We created the world of this show based on Tales from the Crypt, Dante's Inferno, and old Silly Symphonies cartoons,” says Warnock and Waage, co-writers and co-directors of Dead as a Dodo. “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 written and directed by Gwendolyn Warnock and Kirjan Waage with help from the ensemble: 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.

Thirty-five performances of Dead as a Dodo will take place January 8 – February 9, 2025 at Baruch PAC, located at 55 Lexington Ave in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of Friday, January 10, which also serves as the official opening. The performance schedule is Tuesday through Saturday at 7pm and Saturday and Sunday at 3pm with performances at 2pm and 5pm on Sunday, January 12.

Tickets, which are $40 for performances January 8–19 and $55 for performances January 20–February 9, can be purchased at https://bpac.baruch.cuny.edu/. $25 student rush tickets are available 90 minutes before each performance at the box office.

Dead as a Dodo incorporates fog, loud noises, and strobe lighting. It is appropriate for ages 7 and up. The running time is 75 minutes with no intermission.

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

Dead as a Dodo is part of the 20th anniversary Under the Radar Festival, a citywide event taking place January 4-19, 2025. More information can be found at www.utrfest.org.

Please visit www.wakkawakka.org/dead-as-a-dodo for more information.

 

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