The 26th edition of FIMFA opens with a magical and captivating show that blends fantastic life-size and giant puppets, black humour and surprisingly innovative visual effects. Dead as a Dodo is a mesmerising musical odyssey about survival, transformation and the power of friendship. The Norwegian and New York-based company Wakka Wakka, a multiple award-winner for its unique visual theatre, immerses the audience in a haunting and humorous universe.
Dead as a Dodo takes us on a thrilling journey into the depths of the realm of the dead, where two skeleton friends – a dodo and a boy – search for bones to replace their own, which are decaying, before they disappear forever. This does not please the King of Bones and his selfish daughter, who want to keep all the femurs for themselves. One day, something strange happens: feathers begin to miraculously appear on the dodo’s body. This event leads them on a journey to return the dodo to the world of the living. A wave of transformation begins that shakes the established order. The two friends must fight to stay together, whilst they are swept into the centre of an epic battle between life and death.
With moments reminiscent of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas or the short film The Skeleton Dance, Dead as a Dodo weaves its magic to transport us into the imaginative world of the Wakka Wakka’s sparkling projections and unique puppets.
“These people might be geniuses.”
-New York Times
“Adventures through fantastical worlds with a dodo and much more (…).
Dead as a Dodo is a story told in a dazzling way, writes our reviewer (…).
From a formal point of view, it is one of the most relentlessly inventive theatrical productions I have seen in the past year.
The show is as poetically macabre as the film The Nightmare Before Christmas. It plunges the audience into a fantastical universe – at one point even plunging them beneath the raging River Styx – thanks to extraordinarily inventive work with puppets, projections, lighting and original music.
The hell in which we find ourselves may well have been of our own making: Dead as a Dodo concludes the Wakka Wakka company’s trilogy on ecological awareness, following Animal R.I.O.T. and The Immortal Jellyfish Girl, and reflects on the evolution of the natural and human worlds. The broader narrative here focuses on new beginnings, and is told in a dazzling manner.”
-Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Times
“In January, we were treated to the exuberant fantasy of Dead as a Dodo, an existentialist puppet musical about a young man and a dodo wandering the underworld in search of bones (…). The musical balanced the weight of its poignant core with the dazzling, sparkling visual spectacle of the cast’s collective storytelling. Composer Thor Gunnar Thorvaldsson created a small, beautiful collection of songs that surpassed most of this year’s Broadway soundtracks, but even the music took a back seat to the impressive world of projections and puppets.”
-Slant Magazine, The Best Theater of 2025
“Spectacular (…). Wakka Wakka, based in New York and Oslo, the company has been delighting audiences for years with innovative stories and breathtaking puppets. Dead as a Dodo will leave you speechless (…). One stunning scene follows another, and time flies by.”
-Pete Hempstead, Theatermania
“Is it telling that the sweetest and most captivating production I can recall from 2025 took place right at the start of January? Dead as a Dodo, a virtuoso puppet show by the Wakka Wakka company, about a dancing skeleton boy and his friend, an extinct bird, was clearly born out of environmental grief — and yet I still think of that show (…) as my last encounter with a certain kind of pleasure?”
-The New Yorker, The Best Theatre of 2025
“Miraculous puppets and macabre fantasy.
As a work of art, Dead as a Dodo (…) is pure magic. Its puppets, designed by Waage, inspire wonder at every turn and reveal new creatures and surprises in every scene: a solitary skeleton boy dancing with an equally skeletal dodo; a near-life-size mammoth rising from the ground; a giant fish that glows in fluorescent colours when we dive underwater (…).
Which, once again, is utterly captivating to watch, listen to and admire (…).”
-Loren Noveck, Exeunt – NYC
BIO
Wakka Wakka is an award-winning international theatre company based in New York and Oslo. This is their first performance in Portugal.
Gwendolyn Warnock and Kirjan Waage founded Wakka Wakka in 2001, after meeting at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. Under their artistic direction, the company has achieved great international success and critical acclaim, as well as numerous awards and UNIMA Citations of Excellence.
Wakka Wakka has created original shows and undertaken extensive tours across the United States and around the world. Currently, the company specialises in bold, unique and unpredictable puppet theatre, incorporating object manipulation, masks and original music. Their work seeks to expose the contradictions of human existence through biting humour, absurdity and a profound sense of the ridiculous.
Five of its productions have been recognised and selected as Critic’s Picks by The New York Times, including The Immortal Jellyfish Girl, MADE IN CHINA, Baby Universe, Fabrik and The Death of Little Ibsen. In 2013, the company was awarded a Drama Desk Award for Sophisticated Puppetry and, in 2011, received an Obie Award. In addition, Wakka Wakka was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, a Helen Hayes Award and a Hawes Design Award.
The company collaborates with artists from all over the world, including China, France, Greece and Iceland, and works as a visual designer and artistic consultant with various theatres and companies.
In January 2024, Wakka Wakka premiered Dead as a Dodo at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and returned to perform it at the festival in 2025, following popular demand. This work is the third and final part of the ANIMALIA trilogy, which began with Animal R.I.O.T. (2019) and continued with The Immortal Jellyfish Girl (2022/2024).
Gwendolyn Warnock graduated from Northwestern University and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. She has received the Creative Capital and Map Fund awards and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Best Director of a Play. She is dedicated to creating original works that address contemporary themes through a critical lens. She has been an artist-in-residence at institutions including Princeton University, Dartmouth University, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Centre, Robert Wilson’s Watermill Centre, Nordland Visual Theatre and Nord University (Norway). She has led numerous workshops at cultural institutions and universities, both in the United States and internationally.
Kirjan Waage was born in Norway. He graduated from the University of Bologna and the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. It was in Paris that he began creating soft toys, later extending this practice to the world of puppetry, which has become an integral part of Wakka Wakka’s identity. As well as designing all the puppets, Kirjan has co-written, co-directed and performed in all the company’s productions. He has designed and built puppets for institutions such as the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, The Arctic Philharmonic, Riksteatret, Oslo Nye Theatre and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Kirjan is also a published cartoonist.
