The Politics of Art & Authenticity

The play, Wild with Happy, takes the viewer on a journey to explore the concept of death and funeral arrangements. The play depicts Gil, a gay man, struggling with grief about what to do to his mother’s death.

He lives paycheck to paycheck and cannot bear the costs of the expensive caskets the salesman is trying to sell him. He is faced with the decision of either shelling out the high cost for a casket or cremating his mother against the wishes of his other family.He chooses the latter, and infuriates Aunt Glo, his mother’s sister, because she feels like her sister isn’t receiving a proper burial.

The play is simply brilliant! It is hilarious and entertaining. It is by far my favorite performance that we have seen this year. I loved the witty humor and the jokes that Gil would crack. It has a very creative use of stage props. An example would be how the caskets would fold out into a bench or a car. Another strikingly unique thing about this play is that it only has four actors! I believe that these four actors did a magnificent job of portraying their roles.

I was surprised that the play had a happy ending because I was expecting conflict between Aunt Glo and Gil.  I thought Gil would be furious that Aunt Glo planted a tracking device on him, while Aunt Glo would be furious that she had to follow Gil for a lenghty journey down to Disney Land. Colman Domingo, the actor who played Gil and the writer of the play, does a wonderful job of making a serious topic like funerals a laughing matter. Aunt Glo did a brilliant job on acting out her part of going on tirades about things. She was hilarious and I loved listening to her voice. She has a distinct voice that is easy to listen to like Morgan Freeman’s voice.

Image Source: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2012/10/24/arts/24wild/24wild-popup.jpg