NOT WAITING FOR GODOT…
WAITING FOR THE DINOSAUR

This delightfully confounding absurdist
comedy won’t convert skeptics, but devotees
of the genre may find much to admire

Annie Hoeg and Queen-Tiye Akamefula in What a World! What a World! at The Tank

Halfway through What a World! What a World!, a pink dinosaur toy interrupts the action and powers onstage. The actors stop and stare. The toy stops and turns upstage to stare back at them. One actor asks, “What do you suppose that means?” After a thoughtful pause, the other replies, “Is it God?” At that moment, the toy pivots toward the audience as if stunned, earning the biggest laugh of the evening before rolling downstage and tumbling off the edge. Splat!

Annie Hoeg and Queen-Tiye Akamefula

For those who struggle with absurdist theatre, the entire play may feel like that pink dinosaur gag. But if you’re a fan of Waiting for Godot, The Bald Soprano, or The Chairs, then What a World! What a World! may be for you. Otherwise, this 65-minute play can feel like an extended version of that dinosaur bit—one that somehow seems to last two hours.

Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg

Here’s what I think I witnessed in the two-hander at The Tank, which opened last night. Queen-Tiye Akamefula plays Not Keith and Annie Hoeg plays Not Charlotte. They enter on a bare stage, switch on the work lights, adjust the air conditioning, and begin rehearsing an upcoming production of the fictional 1943 melodrama The Pearl of My Oyster. The supposed camp classic centers on socialites Keith and Charlotte. Throughout the rehearsal, the actors pause to debate camp, queer art, and whether the melodrama is a forgotten masterpiece or simply a bad old movie. Nearly every line of dialogue is accompanied by carefully choreographed poses, pivots, and stylized movement, though no choreographer is credited in the program. Director Ilana Khanin continually reminds us through the staging that realism has no place in this world.

Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg

Playwright Eric Marlin keeps the performers constantly shifting identities: from Not Keith and Not Charlotte, to the melodrama’s Keith and Charlotte, to a queer couple watching the film, and eventually to a queer couple watching a recording of a drag performance of the film. As the script itself advises, “don’t worry about keeping it all straight, nothing about this should be straight.” Of course, the line appears entirely in lowercase and without punctuation.

Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg

What I appreciated most was that, beneath its deliberate absurdity, the play has an underlying structure. The first section centers on rehearsal, the second on preparing for the performance, and the third on presenting it. The casting notes specify that the performers may be of any gender, race, ethnicity, or age, reinforcing the play’s resistance to fixed identity. When the narrative becomes bewildering, it’s probably best not to search for a single interpretation—just let the pink dinosaur roll off the stage.

Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg

The design team provides welcome anchors throughout the evening. Most notably, lighting designer Skye Mahaffie does particularly inventive work, transforming simple work lights and isolated single-source lighting into expressive theatrical images. Eric Marlin‘s sound design mixes occasional live microphones with lush, cinematic music that begins on a CD player before expanding through the house speakers. Megan Rutherford Murray‘s costumes layer fragments of period attire over contemporary rehearsal clothes during the performance sequence. Khanin’s direction not only embraces the play’s stylized theatricality but continually introduces fresh visual ideas and scenic surprises that propel the evening forward. In less capable hands, the production could easily have become static or exhausting.

Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg

Akamefula and Hoeg remain fully committed throughout, navigating the play’s constant shifts with admirable focus and precision. Their debates often feel simultaneously meaningful and meaningless. I realize that sounds absurd. But then, so is this play. Cue the pink dinosaur.

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photos by Maria Baranova

What a World! What a World!
The Tank, 312 W. 36th St.
65 minutes; no intermission
ends on August 2, 2026
for tickets ($28–$53), visit The Tank

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Gregory Fletcher is a writer and director. His publishing credits include a craft book on playwriting entitled Shorts and Briefs, as well as a collection entitled A Playwright’s Dozen: 13 short plays. Other publishing includes two YA novels (Other People’s Crazy, and Other People’s Drama), 2 novellas in the series Inclusive Bedtime Stories, 2 short stories in The Night Bazaar series, and five essays. Website, Facebook, Instagram.