Theatre At The End Of The World

by Ben Galosi

What will we do when it's too late? For me, this question is the throbbing crisis at the core of Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman’s Urinetown: The Musical. Set in a drought-ridden town, Urinetown asks its audiences to engage with a society on the rear end of a global ecological collapse. This premise does not seem so absurd to me, nor should it to anybody else. In my view, Urinetown sheds light on the futility of good intentions in a world that is past the point of saving. Some would say that this cynical viewpoint accurately reflects the cataclysmic state that we are living in now, though many would argue that there is still hope. Either way, this piece has a palpable urgency to it. I have channeled this urgency by thinking about what it means to put on theatre at the end of the world. How can we take what we have inherited and make art out of it? At the end of the day, is it all just an exercise in futility? 

I think that the current climate crisis speaks more to a widespread cultural disease than it does an environmental one. In this age of instant gratification and ultra condensed timetables, intergenerational stewardship seems to have become an afterthought in how we go about our business. Perhaps our brains are no longer programmed to take on the sustained efforts needed to conquer the mammoth threat of environmental decay. Perhaps we just live in a world run by reactionary, ignorant masses whose solipsism will kill us all. No matter what our cultural infection is, we are indisputably in the process of doing ourselves in and bringing about the most hostile future for those still to come. 

So, what exactly should we do about all of this? I wish I knew. My gut response is to tell stories. It is all that I have the power to do: grab whatever (and whoever) I can and tell a story. This specific production draws heavily from the roots of my storytelling: putting on plays in my basement with nothing but two sheets and a few costumes. These slapdash productions were filled with a spirit of dynamism and urgency that I would like to reconnect with. I recognize that the stories I tell cannot and will not save the world, but they sure can show interest in it. 

In every way, Urinetown: The Musical is the perfect tale of ecological inheritance, environmental politics, and storytelling in eschatological times. Its satire is sharp and its cynicism is somehow endearing. The show’s commercial success is a triumph for experimental theatre artists everywhere who have challenged the cultural expectations of theatre and found new ways to tell stories.