“drawn into the cultish world of cryptocurrency”
Happy Capital, written by and starring Irish actor Tommy Harris, is an uproariously funny yet heartfelt play about one young man’s plan to get rich quick off crypto. The comedy follows the Cork native, Mark, who, disillusioned by the corporate environment of his workplace, is drawn into the cultish world of cryptocurrency. A world in which fast-talking Americans with 1000-watt smiles promise a world of glamour and riches, provided one makes a not-so-small investment in their crypto coin.
As Mark attempts to recruit each one of his family members into the scheme, he explains to them, in naïve sincerity, how the trading of volatile assets with zero use value and unpredictable fluctuations is totally different from gambling. Alongside Mark is a bevy of hilarious and unique characters whose traditional Irish sensibilities play brilliantly off Mark’s crypto ambitions. Happy Capital is a one-man show and Tommy Harris gives a virtuoso-like performance, effortlessly switching between characters and showcasing a range of accents that has one questioning how he isn’t all over Irish television.
“Happy Capital puts a large, green spotlight on the greed underlying much of cryptocurrency”
The show reaches its peaks when it blends layered ironies with stylised social commentary. For instance, when the show pastiches the opening of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey and Mark says how in the beginning, there were apes who made tools, then ships, then money, and then they made even more money and from that money made money until there was money, money, money! Happy Capital puts a large, green spotlight on the greed underlying much of cryptocurrency that seems more concerned with maximising capital than with improving human life. Harris does so both incisively and compassionately.
Happy Capital is pure entertainment and the most it can be critiqued is that it can be difficult to hear the dialogue over the audience’s stitch-snapping laughter.
