Review: WILD WITH HAPPY at New Conservatory Theatre Center

Actor, playwright, and director Colman Domingo is on one heck of a roll - a Primetime Emmy Award,  nominations for two Academy Awards, two Tony Awards and a Olivier Award nom. His roots to San Francisco theatre began when he moved here in 1991 and NCTC is now presenting Wild with Happy Domingo’s 2012 autobiographical dramedy about the loss of his mother. Poking fun at organized religion, the funeral industry and burial rituals, Wild with Happy is both laugh out loud funny and surprisingly moving and cathartic.

Gil (Marcus  J. Paige) is a 40-year-old struggling actor grieving the loss of his larger-than-life mother Adelaide (Carla BaNu DeJesus) and challenged by his overbearing Aunt Glo (dual role for DeJesus) over his decision to cremate his mother. Opening with a hilarious over-the top church scene and Gil’s run-in with a career challenged funeral director (Samuel Del Rosario), Domingo’s cynicism and existential challenges are poignant and thoughtful wrapped in delightfully comic vignettes.

Memories of his mother are universally human. When he asks her “Are you OK?”, her retort is “Why — what did you hear?”.  About his revolving door of gay relationships, she tells him shew didn’t provide such a good role model for him. We can feel Gil’s exasperation when his mother is convinced an unwanted houseguest casts a voodoo spell on her. Its touching material is buoyed by Dejesus’ spectacular performance.

Grief plays a huge role here, the loss of a mother weighing heavily on Gil. When his Aunt Glo charges in with her strong views on exactly how her sister should be mourned, the struggle between ritual and tradition clashes with modern free will. Aunt Glo’s vision the ‘proper’ funeral is absurd dark comic fodder. Dejesus steals this show with her comic timing and hysterical one liners. When looting her sister’s closet she exonerates herself by saying “She would want me to have these!” Gil and his uber gay friend Mo go on a road trip to Disneyworld where his mother last found hope and joy. Aunt Glo and Terry, the funeral director turned holistic healer, join them for a finale that had many in the audience wiping away tears. Wild with Happy is a must-see for DeJesus’ standout performance.

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