The end of the world is going to happen in eight minutes… or thereabouts. Maybe in another eight minutes. Maybe this is all a screwed-up torture chamber instead of an escape pod. Kaia and Adam, the two characters in The Pod at The Annexe, Paradise Green, are droll about the apocalypse, but they won’t take the computer-voiced abuse.
Adam (played by co-creator Jon Betti) and Kaia (played by co-creator Gergana ‘Gery’ Galabova) are an odd couple reminiscent of Dharma & Greg but also very like Waiting for Godot (which is called out in the show, along with Foucault’s Panopticon). They’ve been queer best friends for years, and banter as such. Adam has entered them as ‘a couple’ into a lottery to, maybe, get shot into space to escape an imminently dying world. Somehow, they have been selected to sit in an escape pod, awaiting a decision from an AI, a rich politician, or some unseen panel. They are warned to strap into their chairs, which they find have flimsy car seatbelts attached to folding chairs that are not bolted to the floor, leading Kaia to wonder how they could survive escape velocity. Do they actually want to get shot into space? What are their chances of survival up there? What are their chances of being selected to repopulate the human race, since they lied so much on their applications? Do they even want to hang out with those rich wankers?
This scrappy, small production from MM is full of clever references along the way. However, while the performers valiantly attempted to keep the energy up, the narrative stakes are simply not that high. Sure, Earth is controlled by unruly technocrats who made evil robots and poisoned everything possible, and the sun is about to blow up, but what of it? Much like Godot, there is no point. Even when Kaia is injured attempting to open the pod door, neither seem to care much. Their choice to leave is equally anticlimactic, as they simply ask the computer to open the doors, and the doors open. While they have taken back some agency rather than accept a handout from a robber baron, even that exit lacks the energy of celebration. One can imagine the sitcom reset about to occur.
But, if you love cheeky banter ranging from classic literature to Nigel Farage’s antics, this is the show for you.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
