I Want to Be Happy Now

I Want to Be Happy Now (Quero Ser Feliz Agora) is a production written and performed by Ricardo Ribeiro. Co-created with Adriel Filipe, Elisabete Pinto, Ricardo Simões, and Tiago Fernandes, the play draws inspiration from two seminal works exploring the tension between the individual and the system: In the Republic of Happiness (2012) by Martin Crimp, and IMF (1980) by José Mário Branco.
Blending theater and live music, the play explores the contemporary pressure to live up to expectations, the fear of failure, and the urgency of existence. The protagonist, a musician on the verge of an international career, suddenly finds himself gripped by doubt.
This is the singer’s rebellion against the future—a future that is not now, that does not yet exist, but that looms as a constant imposition. It is the crossroads where we all confront the inevitable question: What do you want to do in the future?