The Planet Earth Farewell Concert

“The Planet Earth Farewell Concert” is a climate-crisis show that combines political satire, immersive theater, cabaret, and variety, to take a multifaceted, absurdist look at where we’re at, where we’re going, and what we can do. It counterbalances the darkness of the subject matter with comedy, songs, and interactive sections aimed at helping us visualize success in this struggle.

The first part of the show is a literal farewell concert, a glitzy, comedic affair starring an anthropomorphic Planet Earth. Sickly but sassy, Planet Earth sings, tells jokes, and reunites with old friends (dinosaur, polar ice cap, Taylor Swift)…before expiring during her own comedy roast. At the funeral, Universal Life Church Reverend J invites audience members to share their favorite memories of Earth. Then Reverend J splits the audience into groups to create commemorative death rituals honoring Planet Earth. The groups are provided with simple prompts (eg. they must create a song, or a painting, or a stage picture) and a time limit. Then the groups share their work. By now the audience is thinking of itself more like a community than a bunch of passive spectators. But when an attorney enters and reads Planet Earth’s will – surprise, the oil companies get everything – the audience is physically reconfigured according to who will have access to natural resources (most become seatless climate refugees). As more guests speak, the show explores possible courses of action: an animal guerrilla army recruits the audience into sabotaging an oil pipeline; Jeff Bezos assures them that billionaires will not be helping; and children from the future sing about how to seize power by winning elections. Finally, Planet Earth revives, leading the audience in an improvisational game wherein they act out positive outcomes for when we’ve saved the Earth. Finally, when they exit the theater, they encounter actual activists armed with information about the various strategies discussed in the show—an opportunity for people to get involved on the spot.