The World To Come at Woolly Mammoth Theatre

Set in SeaBreeze, a Jewish home for the aging in Southern California, the play introduces us to four elderly residents who have formed a cozy, invitation-only supper club. They gather each evening in a warm community room with ocean views, filling their time with Scrabble, charades, knitting, and the kind of playful banter that only comes from deep friendship. There's Fanny, a sharp-tongued Holocaust survivor with a Hungarian accent who serves as the group's fierce and pragmatic leader. Barbara is a former nuclear physicist whose mind is slipping into dementia, though she still has striking flashes of brilliance. Hal is the lone man in the group, a charming romantic with a borderline old-fashioned streak. And Ruth, the youngest of the four, is a rabbi's widow who brings warmth and spiritual depth to the circle. As Hal and Ruth kindle a sweet late-in-life romance, the group's dynamic feels like something out of a heartfelt sitcom - funny, affectionate, and deeply human.

But this is no simple comedy. Viterbi's script takes a sharp and thrilling turn as the outside world begins to unravel. Early in the first act, the once-sunny ocean views are sealed behind a wall of concrete blocks, and a relentless rainstorm sets in. We learn that in this near-future world, everyone who reaches age 75 receives a mandatory relocation letter, forced into senior facilities under the guise of protection. As conditions deteriorate outside, a series of increasingly unhinged nurses - each one more alarming than the last - deliver fragments of news from a world spiraling toward collapse. What begins as a warm comedy gradually transforms into a gripping apocalyptic drama, complete with stunning special effects that audiences are raving about, including extraordinary lighting, immersive sound design, haunting projections, and one particularly terrifying sequence involving birds.

What has captivated audiences and critics alike is how the play weaves together so many tones and ideas without ever losing its footing. It works as a chilling horror story, a passionate love story, and a profound meditation on aging, mortality, and what it means to build community when the world is falling apart. Viterbi's writing treats its older characters not as sentimental symbols but as stubborn, complicated, fully alive human beings - people who are still growing, still loving, still fighting. The decision to center the story on seniors who are so often sidelined on stage has been called quietly radical, and the result is a play that feels both timely and deeply moving.

The performances have drawn particular acclaim. Naomi Jacobson is riveting as Fanny, bringing a ferocious determination and emotional complexity to a character who has survived the worst of history and refuses to be defeated by what's coming next. Brigid Cleary's portrayal of Barbara has been described as breathtaking - she shifts seamlessly between moments of grandmotherly tenderness, scientific clarity, and prophetic intensity, delivering some of the play's most emotionally devastating scenes. A flashback sequence in Act II, in which Barbara recalls her honeymoon as a young woman on the beaches of Big Sur, has been singled out as one of the production's most beautiful moments. Michael Russotto brings genuine warmth and humor to Hal, while Claudia J. Arenas gives Ruth a wonderful depth of both sorrow and joy. Ro Boddie, playing multiple roles including the parade of nurses and Barbara's late husband, has been praised as absolutely riveting in every scene, bringing both comedic precision and real emotional power.

Shalwitz's direction has earned widespread praise for its ability to let absurdity and genuine anxiety coexist, finding the humor in each moment without undercutting the mounting dread. The play asks enormous questions - what do we protect when systems fail, what do we salvage when certainty slips, who do we hold onto when the sirens sound - and it trusts its audience to sit with the discomfort and the hope in equal measure. The production design supports this beautifully, with Misha Kachman's scenic design creating a space that feels both inviting and increasingly claustrophobic as the walls close in.

At its heart, "The World to Come" insists that joy is an act of defiance, that community is a kind of shelter, and that our most transformational journeys can happen even toward the end of our lives. It is a play that will make you laugh, grip your armrest, and leave the theatre thinking about the people you love and the world you want to build with them. As one character reflects late in the play, "this place was my world to come" - and the play gently suggests that perhaps that should be enough for all of us.

"The World to Come" plays through March 1, 2026, at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St NW, Washington, DC 20004. Performances run Wednesdays through Sundays at 8 PM, with matinees on Wednesdays at noon and Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM. Single tickets start at $31, and twenty Pay-What-You-Will tickets are available for every performance.