The World to Come
Woolly Mammoth Theater Company & Theatre J| Winter 2026
Written by Ali Viterbi
Directed by Howard Shalwitz
Listed as one “the most promising theater to see in the DC area in 2026” by The Washington Post
Rave reviews for Woolly Mammoth and Theatre J’s 2026 production:
Excerpts Broadway World‘s review
“The World to Come delivers powerful, honest performances and an intriguing story in an extraordinary, deeply touching production that shouldn’t be missed.”
“Ali Viterbi’s powerful new play is both dystopian and spiritual. It is of trial and transformation. The apocalypse becomes intimate. The unraveling of the world unfolds not in fire and brimstone but in a placid community room with groovy furniture, a pink crocheted afghan, photos on the piano and friends who refuse to stop loving one another.”
“The play reminds us that friendship can be shelter, humor can be rebellion, and presence itself can be a kind of salvation.”
“This powerful, quirky, disquieting and tender work of playwright Ali Viterbi”
“Draw a Venn diagram of key components of a powerful show and The World to Come is dead center in the overlapping circles.”
“This play asks: What if the “world to come” isn’t some distant afterlife or imagined future, but the fleeting present we share? The World to Come is a world to share, a play to ponder and experience. Don’t miss this opportunity to see theater at its most compelling.”
Excerpts from DC Theater Arts‘ review
“A knockout encounter with the end of days”
“Ali Viterbi‘s astonishingly stirring play, The World to Come”
“Oldsters encountering the apocalypse, there’s a hot premise for you: the perfect occasion for a personal and collective reflection on entertainment as eschatology”
“A highlight of the play for me was a remembered beach-blanket scene in Act II, when Cleary, as 20-year-old Barbara in a bikini, has a tender exchange with Boddie as Jerry, her attentive beau (and now dead husband). If that beautiful moment of memory supplanting grief were a song, I’d have it on repeat.”
“I cannot imagine that anyone witnessing The World to Come would not in some way become mindful, perhaps even emotionally, of their own and their loved ones’ relationship to mortality — and what that means about how to live. From the jokey badinage at the beginning to the cataclysmic spectacle at the end, this play prompts us to do exactly that.”
Excerpts from K Street Magazine‘s review
“The choice to center older Americans (often sidelined on stage) proves quietly radical. These characters are not sentimental symbols but stubborn, sharp-tongued survivors. Their friendships function as both balm and bulwark. In Viterbi’s hands, joy becomes defiance, and community becomes a kind of civic shield.”
“By merging personal mortality with societal collapse, Viterbi blurs the boundary between private and public peril. Friendship, here, is not sentimental but strategic.”
“Overall, if the apocalypse looms, The World to Come insists on laughter anyway. It asks what we protect when systems fail, what we salvage when certainty slips, and who we cling to when the sirens sound.”
Excerpts MD Theatre Guide‘s review
“The World to Come,” a world premiere by Ali Viterbi, leaves us with hope—a beam of light shining at the end of the world.”
“Viterbi’s multidimensional view of life as a senior affirms that we all continue to grow, learn, and love even as we age—it ain’t over, ‘til it’s over!”
“Character development is a strong point for Viterbi and is served well by the artful direction of Howard Shalwitz”
“The World to Come” is a chilling horror story, a passionate love story, and a profound meditation on the depth of humanity needed to survive.”
Excerpts from Whisk and Quill‘s review
“In The World to Comeacts of survival blend seamlessly with gallows humor, hilarity and a fierce desire to help one another.”
“Viterbi’s surrealistic ‘apocalypse play’ provides us with the key to the bonds of friendship and the sacrifices that define humanity in a world gone terribly wrong. It put me in mind of the great French Romanian playwright, Eugene Ionesco, the godfather of the Theatre of the Absurd, who employed surrealism to describe the iniquities of Fascism and Nazism, two isms recently resurfaced in our modern world.”
“Brilliantly directed by Woolly Mammoth Founder Howard Shalwitz in a co-production with Theatre J, and exquisitely performed by this multi award-winning ensemble, this powerful play is staged with imaginative sting. Viterbi reminds us that the shofar is sounding. It is time to act.”
Excerpts from Theatre in DC‘s review
“A world premiere that is generating tremendous buzz among DC theatregoers”
“A show you do not want to miss.”
“But this is no simple comedy. Viterbi’s script takes a sharp and thrilling turn as the outside world begins to unravel.”
“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.”
“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.”
