Wakka Wakka:
Dead as a Dodo

A Thrilling, Family-Friendly Musical Odyssey about Extinction: Wakka Wakka’s Dead as a Dodo

An Essay by Jesse Njus

When Wakka Wakka’s Dead as a Dodo premiered at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in January 2024, the musical was the third installment in a trilogy about the urgency of environmental activism, the dangers of ecoterrorism, and the possibility that nature would evolve to heal itself by bypassing humanity. In 2026, Dead as a Dodo has been very lightly altered to serve as a stand-alone piece, a family-friendly musical that has excised the cataclysmic themes of the trilogy. Although I personally missed the bleakness of the original show, the changes are actually very minor; they simply amount to a slightly more optimistic ending. The resurrection of the dodo has become a source of hope rather than consternation, and the boy’s last parting from the dodo involves a final moment to say goodbye rather than a heart-wrenching inability to connect across different states of existence. The children in the audience were thrilled and relieved by the ending, which emphasizes the rebirth of the dodo rather than the separation of the two main characters. Interestingly, the boy is now explicitly Homo sapiens, not a Neanderthal. In a lovely conversation during the festival, Wakka Wakka’s cofounders and co-artistic directors Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock commented that they were unsure about specifying that humanity was extinct when originally creating the show—this seemed as though it might be a bridge too far (especially given the uncompromising ending). As the musical has become more optimistic, the idea now that humanity is extinct but will be (or has been) replaced by other species did not seem to be such a difficult proposition.

Dead as a Dodo is a musical with a large cast of puppeteers, which means that touring is expensive. The mere creation of such a large show was already extremely difficult, and it was still in flux during its 2024 premiere. Created in collaboration with Figurteatret i Nordland, Nord University, and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, and further supported by the Arts Council Norway, Oslo Teatersenter, Sea-Cargo AS (shipping logistics), and the Norwegian Fund for Performing Artists (FFUK), Dead as a Dodo required a long development process and the resources of Nord University (and a class of willing students). In a classroom, a large cast is a bonus, but the opposite is true when touring. Since the play is now touring alone, it needs the largest possible audience to remain viable, and creating a family-friendly version that does not require an understanding of the entire trilogy is an important milestone for the production.

A family-friendly presentation is the best outcome for a joyous musical about extinction—after all, the children watching are the ones who are going to have to solve many of the environmental problems that we are leaving behind. However, I will always prefer the extraordinary beauty of the final moments of the 2024 premiere and the cathartic release of my desire for hominins’ continued existence in a tangible form. After all, in the vastness of the universe nothing truly disappears.