The Pursuit of Happiness is a wild trip. This madcap meta-musical, brought to life by Portland-based writer, composer, and lyricist Ernie Lijoi and Fuse Theatre, takes audiences through a whirl of repressed trauma, crippling anxiety, and inevitable doom. But it’s also really funny, I swear.
The Pursuit of Happiness (or the Wacky Lesbian Adventures of Brillo Pad and Hula Hoop) follows a year in the lives of six people who, when confronted with their imminent death, divulge their secrets, revealing the hidden truths and traumas of their existences, only to survive and be forced to live with the consequences of their confessions. The entire drama-dy is orchestrated and overseen by a chorus of woefully incompetent and absurd Gods of Happiness.
Throughout the show, the couples’ lives and reality unravel layer by layer. First, there’s Emory and Dixie, a married couple navigating love through infidelities and Dixie’s recent transition. There’s Hughla and Clark, a church-going couple equally fraught with religious trauma and their closeted sexuality. And finally, Brina and Howard, the book’s egotistical author and his unrelenting pistol of a wife who realizes she’s gay and hates her husband.
Existential Pain Meets Hilarity
From the palpable confines of The Black Box Theatre at Reed College, The Pursuit of Happiness exploded before an intimate audience of no more than 60 people. It made the deeply moving displays from all actors even harder-hitting. Alec Lugo’s heart-wrenching ballad as Clark about the hate crime he experienced as a kid was harrowing. And when Kate Faye Cummings (as the troubled pastor Hughla) collapsed on the floor in the throes of a panic attack just inches away from our feet, my boyfriend let out a breathy “damn.” Damn is right. It’s just as Hughla’s God of Happiness alter-ego says, “I can feel her suffering.”
Despite the debilitating pain and existential anxiety central to the plot, The Pursuit of Happiness is still absolutely hysterical. As a musical based on a movie that was based on the book that the musical is about, it’s satirically self-referential. Plus, the music was outstanding. Lijoi is a genius for making campy and catchy hooks centered around living in denial and the pervasive nothingness of the universe.
Every guest of The Pursuit of Happiness is in for an evening of laughter, heartache, and lots of questions as these characters bravely expose their inner fear, only to find themselves miraculously spared from the clutches of death. Or are they??
The Pursuit of Happiness (or The Wacky Lesbian Adventures of Brillo Pad and Hula Hoop) will run through June 25 at Black Box Theatre in the Performing Arts Building of Reed College. See the website for dates and times and to reserve seats.
featured images by Steven Meservy
