Red Theatre’s technologically and linguistically ambitious “You Are Happy” from original author Rébecca Déraspe and translator Leanna Brodie needs a more accurate title. I can suggest a few that better captured my feelings as the lights came up, like “You Are Filled With Increasing Unease”, or “You are Reminded That Life Can Be Very Depressing.” Directors Mary Kate Ashe and Aaron Sawyer have created a landscape of bad ideas, co-dependencies and loneliness, but thanks to their immersive blend of spoken word, written word and ASL, the ennui is inclusive to more theatergoers of differing capabilities than ever.
The production feels like a nod to the Black Mirror universe, employing algorithmic logic to try and solve for emotional crises in our dystopian reality. Is your loneliness making you suicidal? Try a patented new co-dependent relationship! Are you tired of being single and paying for razors? Get a years’ supply when you beta test a free, like-new boyfriend!
The is exactly the exchange that Jeremy (played/signed by Brendan Connelly and voiced by Bowie Foote) and Chloe (played/signed by Michelle Mary Schaefer and voiced by Sarah JK Shoemaker) have entered into. Jeremy’s detached sister Bridget (played/signed by Emily Turner and voiced by Elana Weiner-Kaplow) has rescued him from multiple suicide attempts, and is motivated to offload her problem sibling onto just about anyone else. She finds Chloe alone in a nearby razor aisle, and contracts her almost immediately to receive Jeremy’s love built to her specifications. Jeremy’s untreated instability will require some relationship amendments, of course, but Chloe is almost unbelievably agreeable.
If this strikes you as the most troubling scenario you could imagine, you’re not alone. It’s a trauma to watch this unfold, and Red Theater wants you to associate your discomfort here to the normalcy you feel when faced with similar toxicity in real life. The artistic team wants the turbines of audience logic to kick in when character logic does not. In absence of any judgement levied by the script itself, my own brain started providing narration along the lines of “why is everyone so insistent this troubled man get a girlfriend and not some therapy,” or “this woman is so accommodating of abuse, why does she keep returning for more?”
The play presents the scenario without comment, which can be infuriating from an audience perspective. To know something is amiss about these relationships, but finding validation nowhere can feel like gaslighting. However, directors Mary Kate Ashe and Aaron Sawyer pick up on the subtle creeping horror of modern heteronormativity and family bonds by employing two modes of communication and double casting.
Chloe is voiced by Sarah JK Shoemaker, and brought to life physically by Michelle Mary Schaefer, whose ASL interpretations take on different context than what is spoken as time goes on. There’s something unnerving about an audibly positive vocal presence paired with slumping posture and defeat. An opposite effect brings Jeremy to life; Brendan Connelly goes from unsure to confident in his physical manifestation of Jeremy, and Bowie Foote ensures we know every vocal moment of confidence is a lie. Emily Turner’s Bridget adds an even more complex layer by interacting and eventually subduing her own vocal counterpart, Elana Weiner-Kaplow.
You Are Happy is unlike anything ever seen on a Chicago stage. It’s a concerning work that can be hard to walk away from with hope or clarity. It has the same muddying effect as people talking over one another, not quite listening or comprehending, but making what feels like normal gestures, and hoping those gestures work to win them success and happiness. It’s enough to make you wonder if anyone is truly happy.
The Show: You Are Happy
Theater Company: Red Theater
Venue: The Edge Off-Broadway (1133 W. Catalpa Ave.)
Runs Through: Dec. 8th
Website: redtheater.org
You can find more from Sean Margaret on Chicago Websites: Theatre By Numbers (theatre1234.com) & Windy City Times (windycitymediagroup.com)