By Colin Flaherty
Following a video documenting many images of the End Of Days and various atrocities over the course of history, Mr Death appears on stage bathed in red light. Despite the ominous atmosphere he is merely here to give us a run down of 6 major religions and task us with voting for which religious doctrine humankind should be bound to.
With each segment, the audience are eligible to win an “I Cheated Death” badge (redeemable for extra an 5 years) by guessing which one is next from a set of cryptic clues. This competitive element gives those well versed in theology a chance to flex their trivia muscles.
This show presents lots of facts about the religions being discussed, some of which may be new information to you. To keep things from being too dense, vague links to pop culture are used to tickle our funny bones. In addition to some clever word play, they also pop up as gif styled clips which Mr Death blames on that prankster St Peter.
Mr Death (aka Mark Speed) comes across on stage as a friendly bureaucrat guiding us through an afterlife induction process. He presents the information with a cheery attitude and a slight world weariness in that he’s been through this a trillion times with us tedious humans, a perfect portrayal for this delightful omnipresent creature. Being a PowerPoint-centric show there isn’t a lot of movement from him save some gesturing, our main focus being on the pages of information on screen. A mixture of satirical images and music clips keep us giggling. The highlight is a delightful animation of the apocalypse featuring all the characters discussed throughout.
The End Of The World Show is a wonderful comedic lecture that presents a hell of a lot of information to you in an entertaining and amusing manner. Even the agnostic among us will have plenty of food for thought, or we just enjoy laughing at all the silly beliefs.
The End of the World Show is on at Just the Tonic at The Caves until August 25
