Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – David Finnigan’s stealthily unassuming DEEP HISTORY looks to the past to decipher humanity’s fate amidst climate change

• By drediman
• October 12, 2024
• No Comments

Currently at the Public Theater, you’ll be able to catch David Finnigan’s one man show Deep History. Originally written and performed by Finnigan in 2019 as a wake up call for humanity to take action in the face of the calamities being caused by climate change. Since then, a lot has transpired, and the world is a different place. Suffice to say, the warning bells have only gotten more urgent, which probably explains why the Australian theater maker — now older and wiser — has returned to the piece.

Interestingly, Finnigan has chosen to keep his text largely intact, only occasionally taking time out to interject his 2024 perspectives. In just over an hour, he interplays a harrowing 2019 account of the forest fires raging through Australia with a wide-angle chronicle of human history from its origins to our current predicament, looking to the past to decipher our fate amidst the increasingly dire impacts of climate change (at the drug-induced request of his ailing father). What starts off as an unassuming and affirmative lecture/talk on the resilience of the human spirit eventually turns sour as Finnigan soon realizes how we humans are ill equipped to navigate such massive catastrophes. It’s a stealthy change of faith that proves somewhat less than dramatically satisfying. Indeed, Deep History ends with a shrug rather than a revelation — but how could it not if we’re really being honest?

That the show goes down as easily as it does is a testament to Finnigan’s immense charisma and passion for the subject matter. In many ways, the naturally upbeat actor — who has the bearings of a “cool” high school teacher — is an unlikely conduit for a show that’s ultimately shrouded in doom and gloom. Nevertheless, the message is conveyed loudly and clearly. Throughout, well-judged video clips and evocative sound design are elegantly massaged in, subtly immersing audiences into Finnigan’s unreliable narrative.

RECOMMENDED

DEEP HISTORY
Off-Broadway, Play
The Public Theater
1 hour, 5 minutes (without an intermission)
Through October 27