The Happiest Song Plays Last by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Edward Torres, and: Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegría Hudes, directed by Davis McCallum (review)

Water by the Spoonfuland The Happiest Song Plays Lastare the second and third plays of Quiara Alegría Hudes’s powerful and poetic trilogy centered on Elliot Ortiz, a young Puerto Rican veteran of the Iraqi War. The first play, Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue(2006), introduced a 19-year-old Elliot in the context of a multigenerational family of men whose war service, whether in Korea, Vietnam, or Iraq, led to the same damaging personal results. Shut down by the horrors of war, these men live on the edge of tragedy, a legacy that seems to pass on from one generation to the next without any relief or resolve. The second play, winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Water by the Spoonful, focused on Elliot’s struggle to reintegrate into his north Philadelphia community despite the ghostly memories of his Iraqi experiences. Now an aspiring 24-year-old actor, he is haunted by the image of the Iraqi civilian he horrifically killed in combat. He works the counter at a nearby Subway sandwich shop while caring for his dying surrogate mother, all the while dazed and confused about his next steps in life. In both of these two plays, we encounter various family members who endure their own tragic struggles and attempt to reinvent themselves accordingly. The extended Ortiz clan includes Odessa, Elliot’s birth mother; her sister Ginny, the woman who raised him; and his cousin Yaz, a music professor at Swarthmore College, who along with Elliot drives the trilogy to its conclusion. The events of the first two plays can best be described as tragic. The second and third plays of the trilogy—the focus of this review, given that they had major productions in 2013—foreground the role of technology, especially the internet, as a means to challenge the tragic. In these plays, characters use music and technology both to articulate the tragic and confront it. And, while the men in the trilogy fight against war’s inevitable damage, the women offer a counterpoint of resilience and hope.

Despite the fact that Elliot, A Soldier’s Fuguewas a 2007 finalist for the Pulitzer and Water by the Spoonfulwon, the first two plays of the trilogy have had limited productions in regional theatres in the United States. Having no access to a staged production, the Pulitzer committees, which are in New York City, made their decisions solely on the merits of the script. Given that Hudes’s plays originated outside of the New York theatre scene, the Pulitzer recognition was surprising; it was, however, deserved. Hudes is an important playwright with an original voice and innovative dramaturgy. Each play is inspired and indebted to a particular musical style. Whether it is Bach’s fugues in the first play, Coltrane’s dissonant improvisational jazz in the second, or traditional Puerto Rican musica jibarain the final one, music helps structure each play, as well as provide its core emotional register.

I saw the trilogy performed over a seven-year span beginning with the Rivendell Theatre Ensemble and Teatro Vista’s first-rate production of Elliot, A Solder’s Fuguein Chicago at Steppenwolf Garage during the fall of 2006, and the Second Stage’s excellent production of Water by the Spoonfulin New York City in January 2013. The two productions secured my sense that Hudes, who also wrote the book for the musical In the Heights, was a first-rate playwright. Moreover, these productions, along with the Goodman’s stunning world premiere of The Happiest Song Plays Last, highlighted an extended creative team and ensemble of actors who enhanced Hudes’s vision through innovative staging and expert acting.

Perhaps the most significant of these...