New York Review: “The Catastrophe Club” with Sea Dog Theater
Featured: Stuart Walker, Sue Kim, Cassandra Nwokah. Photo by Jeremy Varne
Max Berry, Contributing Critic - New York City
What would you do if you felt the world was ending? If you’re a character in Devin Burnam’s new immersive play, “The Catastrophe Club”, the answer is to hang out in a bar and muse over the impending doom, your role in how to stop it, and life in general. In this thought-provoking new play we are taken to a mysterious location only disclosed in an email and brought into the world of the future, where our lives are much more controlled and even the act of gathering underground is illegal. We are told that we are about to witness a simulation from the distant past of 2025, not too long before the environmental disasters humans created took effect. What follows is a very interesting story within a story as we watch both a group of friends muse of life and the end of the world and the reflections of the woman who brought us here as she struggles to put the pieces together.
The environmental message of the show was very well handled. It wasn’t even as much of a message as it was a presence. This group of friends, all of whom appear to be in jobs relating to environmental science, lament the rapidly approaching environmental apocalypse without really telling us to do anything. It takes a very nihilistic approach, opting for the “We’re all doomed so we might as well make the best of it” message. While this might, at first glance, appear to hurt the piece, it actually helped it a great deal. It allowed us to come to our own conclusions about the terrifying circumstances they were in.
The dynamic between the four friends was very well established. It was clear that these people all had a history together right away without the need for exhausting exposition and lines of dialogue like “Remember when we…” While each character worked off of each other brilliantly, Burnam also did a great job of making each of them feel distinct. Each character had a clear purpose for being there in that moment as well as clear motivations for why they act the way they do.
Each of the actors handled these characters with intelligence and care, navigating the complicated relationships to great effect. Though, a stand out must go to Dan Kublick as Emime. From the moment he came into the playing space, he commanded the rooms attention. Often delivering some of the funniest lines in the show and working off of the other characters and the audience beautifully, Kublick was a joy to watch.
The was a sense of doom that hung over this show. With the woman from the future telling us how the characters we were about to see had no idea what was coming, as well as the characters lamenting what they fear could be the end of the world, we are always surrounded by this sense that something disastrous was coming. This so perfectly illustrated in one of the main characters, Teres (Sue Kim), not only waiting for the literal end of the world but the results of medical testing that would tell her whether or not her world is going to end. Such a parallel is incredibly smart and very well done.
The world of the dystopian future that the show took place in did not feel as developed as it could have been. Many pieces of what seemed like key information were dropped with very little explanation. This isn’t a problem in itself but when you add the double immersion of being in an underground hideout in the distant future designed to look like a bar in 2025 it gets a little muddled. The immersion was very much felt in the 2025 world. But since these people were supposed to be simulations of people and not actual people, I found myself struggling with which world I was supposed to be immersed in. There were many moments when I forgot that this play took place in the future. The future aspects of the show were best felt towards the end when the simulations took on a new role in the story and the woman’s purpose for creating it is finally revealed. It got me curious about how the simulations worked and I would have liked to have seen more of this kind of thing throughout. Though overall, I walked out of “The Catastrophe Club” thinking much more about my place in it all and wondering how much time we actually had left.
“The Catastrophe Club” was written by Devin Burnam and directed by Shaun Fauntleroy
It featured Cassandra Nwokah, Dan Kublick, Sue Kim, Rachel Towne, and Stewart Walker.
It was produced by Sea Dog Theater, Janelle Garcia Domig and Christopher Domig.
Assistant Directed by Katie Cundari
Lighting design by Guy de Lancey,
Sound design by Tye Hunt Fitzgerald
Stage management by Whitney Bahr