My Joy is Heavy – 13 March 2026

A quirky, fun, emotional roller coaster, My Joy is Heavy by The Bengsons examines miscarriage through the lens of a couple trying for a baby in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. While their four and a half year old son Louie plays with his grandmother, Abigail and Shaun are united toward a shared goal, but feeling differently about it. Abigail, who has experienced a miscarriage prior to giving birth to Louie, will not allow herself to be hopeful about having another child, while Shaun wants to remain cautiously optimistic and celebrate the moments they do have. After losing the baby, Abigail has the realization that not allowing herself to be happy wasn’t good for her in the end, and the show closes with the titular song, “My Joy is Heavy”, expressing the beautiful duality of allowing oneself to be happy even if later in our journey these happy moments are recontextualized as sad. A tight seventy minutes with a relaxed feel, My Joy is Heavy alternates between scenes and songs that creatively incorporate some of the band members. In addition to tears, it brings a joy and hope all its own into a tough conversation that often does not hold space for emotional complexity.

Lee Jellinek’s scenic design of a simply house created many projection surfaces for video designer David Bengali to explore. At times, projection took over the space, and there were moments that flirted with live transmission, as well as moments that were noticeably pre-recorded. There was a song in which the performers traded off, with one being seen live while the other was dancing in a pre-recorded sketch. This emphasized the fact that the characters were dancing around different versions of each other who were in different places emotionally. A moment comes to mind in which Abigail misses taking Louie to meet Santa Claus because she is feeling unwell. She states that Louie’s earliest memories of her will be colored by her sickness. This moment begged the question: why try to have another baby when you are not feeling well and missing important moments with the first one? As Abigail is physically hiding from the world in a literal dark room, she is also hiding in a greater, philosophical sense from the love that is waiting for her in the family that she currently has. Her joy is heavy because she is withholding some of herself from the experience of it and allowing those pieces to weigh her down.

Conventions wise, the show broke the fourth wall and was performed in a relaxed setting— the house lights never went out completely, people were encouraged to move their bodies if they needed to, fidget toys were provided at the back, and the entire performance had open captions. Integrated access and open access are wonderfully inclusive, and I celebrate this production for using them every performance and not forcing people who want these accommodations to all come on a special affinity night. At the same time, it feels tough in practice to get up and walk out while someone is sharing their visceral pain and talking directly to the audience. I didn’t personally see anyone get up and move about the space or hear anyone vocalize during the performance, and I wonder if others felt like the immediacy and directness of the show— especially in light of knowing that The Bengsons are human and share some access needs— made it feel difficult to find a covert moment to leave if one needed to. These accommodations are becoming more popular, and I appreciated the handout explicitly explaining the relaxed theatre etiquette as well as the onstage introductions, which were performed in a different headspace than the rest of the show. The onstage introduction also showed the audience that the characters recovered from the heavy events of the play and are doing well now. To start the show with this knowledge meant that we weren’t worried about the characters’ safety from themselves or from each other or how the show might end, which enabled us to fully dive into the world of the show and focus on the characters’ journeys and feelings in a unique, in depth way.

My Joy is Heavy is a carefully curated experience that elucidates the relationship between happiness and pain, and suggests that outcomes are less important that the choice to work towards a goal. In the end, Abigail and Shaun have made piece with what happened, and are able to dance forward into a brighter future where they acknowledge the pain of the past and the happiness of the moment. It’s a beautiful journey in which the audience feels held and seen.

I attended this performance on a press pass from Print Shop PR.