Under the Radar Review: New Life Rises From the Ashes in Spectacular Dead as a Dodo

Who’d have thought that a dystopian story about a one-legged skeleton boy and his extinct pet dodo traipsing around a Land of Bones could be so much fun? The creative team of Wakka Wakka of course, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the troupe’s work before (think The Immortal Jellyfish Girl). Wakka Wakka, based in New York and Oslo, has been astounding audiences for years with innovative stories and mind-blowing puppetry. Dead as a Dodo will blow your mind too.

The story follows a boy and a dodo, both skeletons, who are on a mission to find old bones to replace the ones that they’ve lost. That doesn’t fly with the Bone King and his selfish daughter, who want all the femurs for themselves. As the two friends try to flee with the bones they’ve found, the dodo suddenly discovers that she is sprouting feathers. This leads the two on a quest to return the dodo to the land of the living. But will the boy be able to go with her?

To give a summary of the story doesn’t come close to capturing what Dead as a Dodo is about. You can read meaning into the dodo’s feathers symbolizing the hope that our planet is not doomed to become a wasteland. That’s definitely a part of it. But the show, for me anyway, is more about exploring theater magic and seeing what kinds of stories are possible to tell onstage.

Wakka Wakka puppet designer Kirjan Waage has returned in this production with an astonishing array of sophisticated creations operated by eight puppeteers cloaked in black sequined bodysuits (costumes by Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock). The boy and dodo come to life like I’ve never seen puppets do onstage before, but even more astonishing is the enormous neon fish that swallows them as they fall into the river Styx. And nothing prepares you for the giant woolly mammoth that slowly emerges from the shadows to help them escape the Bone King.

Waage and Warnock create an overall experience that feels like a well-rehearsed symphony. The writing is funny as hell, with the boy and dodo getting big laughs when they meet a sassy Italian gondolier. Though the stage is pretty dim for most of the show (Daphne Agosin creates a suspenseful balance of shadow and otherworldly light), Erato Tzavara’s stage-wide projections create breathtaking illusions of motion, and Thor Gunnar Thorvaldsson amps up the excitement with heart-pounding music (a handful of catchy songs sometimes makes Dead as a Dodo seem like a musical). One eye-popping scene follows another, and the show’s 80 minutes fly by.

Is Dead as a Dodo a show for kids? There’s enough scary imagery to frighten little ones, but older kids will love it. That said, Wakka Wakka’s puppets seem made with adults in mind. There’s a cartoonish quality to Dead as a Dodo (Thorvaldsson’s hilarious sound effects include Looney Tunes-like boinks), but there’s a serious message underneath it all: there’s hope for us and the planet—if we get our shit together.