What a World! What a World!

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Eric Marlin’s What a World! What a World! is a surreal one-act play about two actors putting on a drag performance inspired by a fictional 1940s film called The Pearl of My Oyster. The film-within-the-play follows Charlotte, a socialite who falls for rough-and-tumble fisherman Keith. Within the play, the two performers argue about the nature of their performance, about drag as homage vs. parody, and about beauty itself. Neither character is given a name, with Queen-Tiye Akamefula’s (Black Girl Magic Show at JACK) drag king credited as simply Not Keith and Annie Hoeg’s (Slow Field at Theaterlab) drag queen credited as Not Charlotte. Ilana Khanin (Shot List at the Baryshnikov Arts Center; How to Mourn the Dead: a tragedy (in flux) at Montclair New Works Initiative) directs, with Luke Daniel White serving as dramaturg.

The movement is where the show shines. Watching Akamefula and Hoeg on stage, one gets the sense both characters are longtime confidantes of each other, both actresses moving with such intentionality as to make every gesture feel important. The tension between these two (and the ideas they represent) is at the core of the show, and their physicality reflects that. Sometimes the two move in sync, such as during rehearsal scenes, but more often than not their ways of moving through the space are quite distinct. Hoeg has quite the dramatic flair as Not Charlotte, with a lot of sudden gestures and lingering poses. Akamefula has more of a steadiness as Not Keith, maintaining an undercurrent of resigned uneasiness that sometimes bubbles over in key scenes. Akamefula in particular puts in an excellent performance, especially during the scenes where the duo are watching the movie and at the end when they decide to switch roles.

The script from Marlin (Shot List at Baryshnikov Arts Center; How to Mourn the Dead: a tragedy (in flux) at Montclair New Works Initiative) is shaky at times but undeniably has some great moments and interesting ideas. Its central premise is quite clever: when two artists try to stage an homage to their favorite old movie, they begin fighting about anything and everything. This constant bickering mixes memorable quotes amidst deeply human moments. Both characters have a remarkable amount of interiority for a play so focused on playing out miniature Socratic dialogues, with the personalities often enhancing each character’s status as a stand-in for their respective philosophies.

Sometimes the show pulls off this balancing act. There’s an excellent moment where Not Charlotte is pontificating about how wondrous drag is, Not Keith says he craves “a larger legacy,” and Not Charlotte immediately responds with “don’t do that, don’t do that.” It’s blunt, but it gets its point across quite well and it’s funny. Later on, Not Keith demanding Charlotte wait for “the moment of transformation” strikes a similar note. Other times, however, these quotable-line-filled arguments become grating – there’s a recurring joke about altoids that’s not particularly amusing the first time, let alone the fifth.

The only major misstep is towards the end, when a fourth-wall-breaking scene utterly falls flat. In order to reveal the twist of the film-within-a-play, a PA walks out and holds a series of cue cards for the audience to read. The attempts at humor don’t land, and having the reveal happen this way makes it seem utterly meaningless. The actual substance of the reveal is quite interesting, and one wishes the play had done more with it. Outside of this sequence, however, the play mostly sticks to its central ideas and develops them well.

Khanin’s staging makes use of the entire black box stage, with both actresses going back and forth physically during their arguments as much as verbally. The lighting by Skye Mahaffie is kept quite static at the start, but later on the show does a lot of scenes in near-darkness or shadow. These moments could theoretically have served to build tension, but they often peter out and come across as a bit distracting. In a show based so heavily on the movement of its two actors, it can be a bit disappointing when the show decides to shroud them in darkness or hide them behind a screen.

The costume design by Megan Rutherford Murray keeps the pair of actors in regular clothes until towards the end, at which point they are given more formal attire, befitting the grandiose finale of a 1940s romantic drama. The sound design by author Marlin is fairly creative, with the on-stage radio in particular working quite nicely.

Overall, What a World! What a World! is a short and sweet exploration of art and gender, done through its clever film-within-a-play framing device. It’s an entertainingly surreal show that hits the mark without wearing out its welcome.

What a World! What a World! (through August 2, 2026)

The Tank, 312 W. 36th St, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2026/4/8/whataworld

Running time: 65 minutes without a intermission