Wombat Drool, the one-man show now playing at the Dance Loft on 14th, is a production worth spending your money and time on. David S. Kessler plays K, a former employee at the National Zoo. K gives us a lecture on his experiences at the zoo. He then follows that with a talk at a rally to support bringing wombats to the zoo.
K discovers early in his career that he feels most comfortable hand-rearing animals in the “small mammal” division of the zoo. (A “small mammal” is anything you could possibly hold in your arms.) The cute baby animals are what most people are attracted to, he notes. But, he points out, there is a life span, there are geriatrics. There is a life as nuanced as human life. The experiences he absorbs and the stories he tells from this vantage point are tender, full of heartbreak and amusement.
Some poignant observations K makes about learning what it means to care for small mammals in this institutional context:
“One thing you forget [about the small mammals] is that you tend to outlive them all.”
Thinking about times when the aims of the institution and the animal’s instinct conflict and his role in this process, K notes: “I’m not innocent, I am sure. I’ve forgotten horrible things that I’ve done.”
K observes that when those aims align, however, the relationships to the animals can be one in which they are “respected, honored, continued.”
Think of David S. Kessler’s K as a zookeeper who is a combination of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Garrison Keillor. His subject (animals in a zoo and their keepers) is simultaneously commonplace and strange to us. But he guides us through it in a way that makes it accessible and wonderful. At some point, it dawns on us that this strange yet familiar subject may, in fact, have something important to do with our normal civilian lives: something that we can make use of.
Wombat Drool is a touching, humorous, and informed account of a life devoted not merely to babysitting and cleaning up after animals (within the institutional context of the National Zoo). Indeed, it is a testimony to how the relationship between caged and dependent animal and caretaking human turns out to be one of mutual accommodation and, at least on the part of the human being, learning to be humble in the face of the complex life of beings whose language is not based in the European intellect.
That learning curve turns out to be literally vertiginous for K and runs parallel with the humility he learns in watching his own daughter grow. He tells the story of how, despite being nervous and inexperienced at climbing trees, circumstances force him to do just that in order to retrieve a “true panda.” He notices feeling that same insecurity reasserting itself as he currently remembers his daughter’s lifelong fearlessness in the face of climbing literal rocks and crags and considers her current enthusiasm as she leaps into the unknown adventure of California to pursue her own future.
Director Lynn Sharp Spears deftly guides this production, making a virtue of its modest stage design (the advertising for the show invites us to “get small with K and discover that small matters”), interweaving through subtle voice overs K’s differing responses to both the animals and the daughter he has cared for.
There is a moral here about beings with different understandings of the world communicating across those differences: a moral about coexistence and about how, in spite of the occasional counter-purposes involved, there are bonds that are formed, service done, and good accomplished.
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Wombat Drool plays through March 29, 2025, presented by Nu Sass Productions and Uncle Funsy Productions, performing at the Dance Loft on 14th, 4618 14th St NW, Washington, DC. Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Sundays at 2:00 PM. Tickets are $25 general admission; $15 for students, educators, and essential workers; and $10 for theater industry professionals. Pay-what-you-will options are also available. Use the promo code DATENIGHT at checkout for a date night special: 2 tickets, 2 drinks, and 2 snacks for $60. The show will also be livestreamed. Livestream tickets are $10 general admission and $5 students/industry. Find complete details and tickets online.
COVID Safety: Masks are optional except that face masks are required for performances on March 16 at 2 PM, and March 22 at 7:30 PM.
Wombat Drool
Written and performed by David S. Kessler
Producer: Aubri O’Connor
Production Manager: Ileana Blustein
Directed by Lynn Sharp Spears
Light Design by Liv Jin
Sound & Projections by Neil McFadden
Set & Props by Aubri O’Connor
Marketing by Hannah Wing-Bonica
Paintings and Sculpture by Patricia Powell Kessler
Wombat Drawing (on Graphics) by Adelaide Waldrop
SEE ALSO:
Nu Sass and Uncle Funsy to present ‘Wombat Drool’ (news story, February 12, 2025)
