Happy Now?
By Lucinda Coxon
Synopsis:
“Okay, I’m thinking: is this my life? My one and only life? This chaos of miscommunication and petty resentment and kids I only half recognise? Is this it?”
The second play in Next Stage’s autumn trilogy of modern writing, Happy Now? shows the flip side of the commitment and married bliss yearned for by Nick and Joe in The Things Good Men Do.
Late 30s, married with kids, her father dying and her mother cantankerous, Kitty has long since forgotten the carefree years of her 20s. In her demanding job with a cancer charity, she barely has time to talk to husband Johnny, who is battling on as a comprehensive school teacher. Off-stage their two young children are depicted as the time-consuming, expensive products of Kitty and Johnny’s marriage. Close friends, Miles and Bea, are drifting unhappily towards divorce, and the apparently blissful relationship enjoyed by gay friend Carl, throws into stark relief the emotional desert into which Kitty and Johnny appear to have drifted.
Struggling to maintain personal freedom along with family, fidelity and a testing job, Kitty feels as though she is simultaneously the rope in a multi-directional tug-of-war contest and the juggler hired to perform a fiendishly difficult balancing act. Then a chance encounter with an attractive and persuasive delegate at a conference starts Kitty questioning her routine lifestyle.
Next Stage actors bring their inimitable style and flair to the witty and incisive language of Happy Now? whilst the in-the-round staging creates the perfect intimate arena in which the play’s fast-paced action can unfold.
Whether single, married or separated there is something for everyone in Lucinda Coxon’s painfully truthful, darkly comic take on contemporary life and how to survive it.
“A richly rewarding gem... the best new play to have arrived on the British stage for at least a year.” Daily Telegraph
Pre-show suppers available Thursday - Saturday 6pm
£15, bookable in advance on 01225 428600. Please see menu below.
The Green Room will be serving light lunches from 1pm before the matinee performance.
Supper menu:
Pork, Apple, Leek and Cider Casserole
- or
Peppers, Cheese and Smoked Paprika Frittata with courgettes in dill sauce
- or
Deep Filled Apple Pie
- or
Cooked Vanilla Cream with marmalade syrup
- or
Teas and coffees to finish.
Director/s | Cast:
Ann Garner
Director
Caroline Groom
Kitty
Richard Matthews
Johnny
Ros Harwood
Bea
Nicky Wilkins
Miles
Mark Sanders
Carl
Kay Francksen
June
Andrew Ellison
Michael
Review/s of Happy Now?:
Review 1: Next Stage is happy now to stage new play
When Next Stage director Ann Garner saw the National's production of Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now? she returned from London and immediately put her name down to perform the play when the performing rights became available. Which means that Next Stage must be one of the first amateur companies in the country to perform the play next week at Bath's Mission Theatre. Happy Now? is one of a series of three…click here to read the whole review.
By Christopher Hansford, Bath Chronicle
Review 2: Kitty Wakes
Bath’s Next Stage are taking on Lucinda Coxon’s tale of a stressed working mum who suddenly gets a new perspective on her life. Steve Wright juggles his priorities. It’s a nice irony that the very people for whom ‘Happy Now?’ – Lucinda Coxon’s play about stress, fidelity and the claustrophobic demands of family and professional life – would resonate the loudest, are probably those too…click here to read the whole review.
By Steve Wright, Venue Magazine
Review 3: Review
"Is that all there is," asks Kitty. "Is this it?" She is the wife, mother and breadwinner in a middle class marriage that doesn't seem to be going anywhere but down. Laid back husband Johnny teaches, friends Miles and Bea seem to have little in common, dad's seriously ill and parted from her self-centred mother. Gay Carl makes up the dysfunctional sextet, seemingly the friend and confidant of all with…click here to read the whole review.
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