You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World!, now playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Thomas Theatre, is a new comedy by Keiko Green about a nice man named Greg who learns that he will soon die of pancreatic cancer. As played by Tim Getman, he is surprisingly calm about facing death.
A comedy? Really? Well, the author convinces some of the audience members to believe her. The rest of us, probably a minority, are reluctant to laugh about death and the predicted end of the world.
Greg’s imminent death is mourned by his dependable wife Viv, played by Amy Kim Waschke. Greg and Viv’s teenage child called M, is played by Winter Olamina. This almost-adult, whose ambition is to perform as a drag queen dressed in fluffy pink, desperately wants Greg to stay alive long enough to see and appreciate the talents of his only child.
Greg IS proud of M, and only mildly complains about M’s friend Will, who expresses his ideas in exaggerated upspeak like a Valley girl. Rafael Goldstein is excellent as Will, as is Kate Wisniewski as a neighbor.
The play touches upon teen-age activists inspired by Greta Thunberg. Greta, as played by Kat Peña, even makes an appearance in a hallucination.
Most of the action takes place outside a pleasant suburban house surrounded by non-native plants requiring a lot of water. It’s easy to recognize the thoughtless American way of landscaping.
Zi Alikhan has directed this new play with a loving touch. Now I’d like to see him, and the author, scare us into tackling real change.
