ALL OUR HAPPY DAYS ARE STUPID Begins in February at The Kitchen

The Kitchen and McSweeney's present the long overdue U.S. premiere of New York Times bestselling novelist Sheila Heti's only play All Our Happy Days Are Stupid, which was first commissioned in 2001, but, until last year, never produced. Under the direction of Jordan Tannahill with Erin Brubacher, Heti's writing is brought to life by a cast of 13 multi-disciplinary performers who also sing original songs by Dan Bejar (The New Pornographers, Destroyer).

The writing of All Our Happy Days Are Stupid, and its long history outside the public eye, became the backdrop of Heti's novel How Should a Person Be? (New York Times Notable Book of 2012), which follows the personal and professional travails of a young woman named Sheila as she struggles to write a play. Heti's eclectic play was called "unstageable" by the Toronto theatre company that commissioned it more than a decade ago. It took the dogged curiosity of multi-disciplinary instigator and director Tannahill (of Toronto's Suburban Beast) to put together a company of artists bold enough to reveal all its playful seriousness. This collaboration, first produced in a tiny storefront with a 5 X 25 foot stage for an audience of only 30 people, captures a fertile moment in Toronto's experimental cultural scene.

In All Our Happy Days Are Stupid, two couples, each with a 12-year-old child, travel to Paris; within a few moments of finding each other in a crowd, one of their children disappears. A day later, as the families search for the boy, one of the mothers disappears, too. The story that follows is a wonderfully strange, beautifully constructed examination of happiness and desperation, complete with men in bear suits, teen pop stars and eight really excellent songs.

Performances of All Our Happy Days Are Stupid will take place February 19-28 (see above schedule). Tickets are $25 ($18 students, seniors) and available online at www.thekitchen.org; by phone at 212.255.5793 x11; and in person at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street), Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2:00-6:00 P.M.

All Our Happy Days Are Stupid is produced by Suburban Beast in association with McSweeney's, Warby Parker, and Harbourfront Centre, and in part by public funds from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. All Our Happy Days Are Stupid is produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

About the artists

In 2012, Sheila Heti (Playwright) published the novel How Should a Person Be?, which was nominated for The Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly The Orange Prize) and named a Best Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Salon and other places. Her latest book, Women In Clothes, a collaboration with Heidi Julavits and Leanne Shapton, recently made the New York Times Bestseller's list. She lives in Toronto and is the author of four other books of fiction and non-fiction and one children's book. She has written for The London Review of Books, n+1, Harper's and more, and is a contributing editor at The Believer magazine. She frequently collaborates with other artists and writers.

Jordan Tannahill (Director),is a playwright, theatre director, and filmmaker. In 2014, at the age of 26, he became the youngest recipient of a Governor General's Literary Arts Award for English-Language Drama for his collection of plays Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays. Through his theatre company Suburban Beast, Tannahill writes and directs plays for theatres, art galleries, and unconventional spaces. His plays frequently explore themes of gender politics, youth culture, and marginalized identity through the playful combination of documentary elements and magical realism. In 2013 he won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for rihannaboi95, a play performed over Internet live-stream. He is currently in-residence at Canadian Stage, Buddies in Bad Times, and Tarragon Theatre and has upcoming productions at the National Arts Centre, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Harbourfront Centre's World Stage, and the 2015 Pan American Games. His films have been widely exhibited at festivals and galleries including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the British Film Institute. He currently teaches at the National Theatre School of Canada and his book Theatre of the Unimpressed will be published by Coach House Press in the spring 2015. In collaboration with William Ellis, Jordan runs the alternative art-space Videofag out of a defunct barbershop in Toronto's Kensington Market.

Dan Bejar (original music) is an independent singer-songwriter fromVancouver, Canada. Bejar has gained widespread popularity through his musical collaborations with Vancouver indie-rock band The New Pornographers, but has released far more material as the frontman of his band Destroyer. He is renowned for his poetic and often cryptic lyrics as well as his unorthodox vocals. In 2006, he joined with Carey Mercer of Frog Eyes and Spencer Krug of Sunset Rubdown and Wolf Parade as part of another indie group, Swan Lake. He has also collaborated with Sydney Vermont as the duo Hello, Blue Roses, whose debut album was released in 2008.

Erin Brubacher (Collaborating Director / Performer) is an artist and social orchestrator who has lived in ten cities. This nomadic living influenced her development of an 'invitational' arts practice that interrupts and enters the everyday; her work often explores the unoccupied spaces between strangers. Alongside her solo practices, Erin is co-artistic producer of Suburban Beast with Jordan Tannahill and collaborates regularly with artists across disciplines. Presently: Her photographs are part of Ame Henderson's choreographic work, rehearsal/performance (Art Gallery of Ontario) and, in 2015, she will be walking 700km, from Pennsylvania to Ontario, for a new performance project, 7th Cousins. Erin has led artistic projects and programming for organizations such as the Arches, Glasgow and Tarragon Theatre in Toronto; has curated work and hosted events for festivals and sites across Canada and Europe; and holds a practice-based M.A., with distinction, in International Performance Research jointly from the University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam. Her peripatetic practice is now based in Toronto.

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