Michael Tow, Anjie Parker – Photo by Annielly Camargo

Presented by Company One
Produced in partnership with Boston Public Library
A new play by Keiko Green
Directed by Shawn LaCount
Dramaturgy by Jessie Baxter

Mar 6 – Mar 28, 2026
Boston Public Library
Central Library in Copley Square
700 Boylston Street
Boston, MA 02116
Digital Playbill

All tickets are Pay-What-You-Want ($0 minimum)

Critique by Kitty Drexel

BOSTON — Before the show opens, a Company One lobby posterboard asks audience members of You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World what song they’d like to hear at the end of the world. I’d hear my spouse playing David Bowie karaoke on the ukulele while my loved ones welcome me home. That’d be nice. At the end, I hope there’s enough magic left for everyone to hear their heart’s desire. 

It’s the end of the world as he knows it, and it hurts like Hell. Greg (Michael Tow) receives a terminal cancer diagnosis (and weird dream visitations from Greta Thunberg (Anjie Parker)), he finally understands his true purpose and races to save Mother Earth as our climate catastrophe looms. Meanwhile, his wife, Viv (Jade Guerra), tries to hold it all together, but really just wants to stop time and hide under the covers with her husband. And through it all, our emcee and their child, M (Kai Clifton, who dazzles in another leading role), charts their own path while Dad is dying, life is a drag, and the world keeps spinning. Ensemble members Parker, Alex Alexander and Nicholas Papayoanou play multiple supporting characters

You Are Cordially Invited to the End of the World peeks into what losing a loved one to terminal illness looks like. Sometimes it begins with a diagnosis. Sometimes it begins with a loved one’s troubling behavior. It will get weird before it gets better. Whether or not the weirdness brings you closer to your loved one depends on what you’re willing to sacrifice before nature takes its course. 

Kai Clifton – Photo by Annielly Camargo.

Part artivist dissertation, part catwalk, YACIttEofW asks its audience to sit with the consequences of global collapse while one family negotiates terminal illness. In the playbill, Kirsten Greenidge, C1 resident playwright, interviews Keiko Green. Their thoughtful discussion gives greater context for the play’s emotional landscape. 

The cast grasps the quirky demands of the play with both hands, fully embracing the dream sequences without hesitation. Tow makes a well-intentioned Greg – a man who hasn’t accepted the new limitations of his ailing body. His portrayal is earnest but relentlessly determined in his mission to save the world. Guerra as balances Tow. Her Viv is grounded and certain only of her love for her family. 

Clifton wrenches hearts as M. They are equally as earnest but with less self-assurance (because the world is kinder to cis men than to young people navigating the gender spectrum). Kudos to Emily Woods Hogue, costume designer, and Neon Calypso, drag consultant, for outfitting Clifton in fishnet finery and to Clifton for wearing it with such radiance. In the first scene, Hogue also matches an orange frog purse to a dream sequence frog costume. The sight gag is clever and much appreciated.  

Speaking of, Nitsan Scharf and Grace Kroeger, the projection team, and Elmer Martinez, lighting design, use their work to turn the BPL auditorium into a planetarium. Throughout the production, the auditorium’s walls and ceiling are lit up with twinkling stars and expanding solar systems. It reminds us how small we are in the scope of things. 

Regarding its physical landscape, dramaturg Jessie Baxter and Audrey Erickson provide (local!) supplemental information to the production in their playbill essay, “The Ripple Effect: Long-lasting Impact from the Charles to the South End.”  Their second playbill article, “Greta’s Guide to Going Green,” gives the audience small, helpful ways to fight for climate justice after the show. Massachusetts fights hard to protect its lands. Another way you can help is by sharing this information with your friends and family across the U.S. Ask them to reach out to their local politicians to fight for climate justice, too. 

On a personal note, this was either the best time for me to see YACIttEofW or the worst. I’m in the midst of losing my mother to dementia and its complications. While our country happens to be at war with itself, cis women, trans people, children, Venezuela, Iran, and the planet (while the pedophiles in the Epstein files walk free), my mother’s illness decided to progress past the point of no return. I’m emotionally raw like an onion. So, I felt a kinship with M: Like them, I find poetic justice in losing my mom as the world falls apart. 

YACIttEofW pushed all of my buttons until I cried like a baby: It soothed me to know I’m not alone; It hurt like Hell to see Greg’s family suffer. Our similarities made parts of the play unbearable. It also made sitting through to the end more ecstatically joyful. All families grieve differently. Within our unique stories, we find commonality. I’m clinging to our commonality. 

There are more universal truths in YACIttEofW to appeal to a broad audience than there are alienating differences. Whether a red, blue, green or other voter, we’ve all lost someone to cancer or another asshole terminal illness. We all live on this planet and want to keep it beautiful in our own way. We’re all electrified meat sacks of mostly water doing our best to live authentically and project our best selves onto the world. So, let’s take a cue from the characters of the play and cut ourselves a break. Enjoy good theatre, protect the dolls, and hold the tax-dodging billionaires accountable instead.     

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