In "it ain’t no fairy tale", Lusia Strus interweaves her Ukrainian immigrant parents’ marriage with her own. “In the process, she offers a ferociously honest, fiercely impassioned, often starkly funny and deeply moving look at what it means to take and keep wedding vows … and what it takes to break them.” (Chicago Sun Times) An evolving show about the differences between what we insist life promises and what it delivers. “Yesterday’s honesty is today’s bullshit”, says Strus. Things get in the way of “happily ever after” … like addiction … and cancer … and honesty. Honesty always gets in the way of the story. It just does.
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Four years ago, Lusia Strus was commissioned by Steppenwolf Theatre to write a solo show. “LOVE” was what they said. Write about “LOVE”. This being Lusia’s first commissioned work and it being Steppenwolf and considering she was fast approaching her own wedding (and that certain wild eyed-wedding magazine-psychosis that happens to otherwise level headed women had permeated Ms. Strus’ very soul), she answered, “Yes! Of course! LOVE! I’ll write about LOVE!”
Lusia proceeded to interview her mother about her marriage to her husband (Lusia’s father). They met in Communist Ukraine. Their courtship was a two-week, three-date affair complete with blacklists and border control and borscht. It culminated in their wedding and a one-night honeymoon before her husband had to return to America where he already had emigrated. They did not see each other again for four years. Their journey ends in a modest Chicago bungalow where they had three girls and made a life together until cancer took his life. It took two years for him to die. His wife watched. Their story is one of extraordinary devotion and matter-of-fact commitment and kindness.
Approaching her very own nuptials, Lusia compared her parents’ marriage with her own hopes, recognizing that vows are not civilized despite all the taffeta and tulle we try to pretty them up with. Knowing this and inspired by her parents’ no-frills dedication, she felt her chances for marital survival were better than most.
The show was a critical success and sold–out-beyond-capacity hit. People cried.
Then Lusia got married.
The wedding was a critical success and sold-out-beyond-capacity hit. People cried.
Two years passed.
The divorce courtroom had six people in it (including a kind bailiff with Kleenex). People cried.
Lusia returned to Chicago to perform “it ain’t no fairy tale” again. This time with a post-nuptial update, an addition to an evolving show about the differences between what we insist life promises and what it delivers. Then after an eight month journey through Europe she came back to the States, rewrote the second half and put the show up in LA. “Yesterday’s honesty is today’s bullshit”, says Strus. Addiction can get in the way of “happily ever after”. It’s like cancer that way. And honesty, too. Honesty always gets in the way of the story.
The reprise of “it ain’t no fairy tale” proved to be another critical success and smash hit, both in Chicago and LA (complete with a shiny trophy).
“Of course”, as one critic speculated, “given her constantly shifting emotional tide, there’s no way of knowing how long the new version will last, either. As she’ll be the first to admit, ‘And today’s honesty is tomorrow’s bullshit’.”