Tacos & Extinction
Reviewed by Pia Shaw
The vibe of Tacos and Extinction is funny, unless it’s you on the fork.
The set is the HMS Beagle, the ship on which Darwin developed his famous theory of evolution. A stylized giant spider, both exquisitely beautiful and elegant, ever so gracefully steps on stage. Darwin and the ship's captain chase after it. The captain, with a rolled-up sea chart, is aiming to kill. Darwin, with a specimen net, is aiming to capture.
This well-crafted production is skillfully directed, as hard truths intermingle with the absurd throughout. The profound is spoon-fed and easily digested with humour and irony.
The anthropomorphizing works, too, with the captive Gorilla in the hold, the pogo-stick-hopping Cricket, and the grieving Last Great Auk, giving us their side of the story. The banter between the captain and Darwin is funny, clever, and their timing is spot on.
This show blends the historical and the mythical into a laugh-out-loud tragicomedy that tackles ecology, colonialism, evolution and human exceptionalism. It turns important ideas into something we can feel while laughing at the absurdity of it all.
Somewhere between the laughs, you start thinking about fast food, monoculture farming, and what gets erased when we stop noticing what we eat. Entertaining the whole way. Never a downer, just quietly impressive.
Note: the show includes meat-eating on stage, which vegan/vegetarians may want to know going in.
Age Suitability: Parental Guidance (ages 13+)
Warnings: Coarse Language, Fog, Other Warnings
Other: Simulated Stylized Death
Venue: The St. Luke's Mission
Genre: Theatre—Comedy
Playwrights
David W-V, Elijah Varhegyi
Director
David Widder-Varhegyi
