Listen closely to the dialogue of Happy Now?, which opened this weekend at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and you’ll hear some familiar 21st-century phrases. “Give yourself permission to be happy,” says Michael to Kitty, halfway through the second act. It’s a line that wouldn’t be out of place in the latest Dr. Phil hugfest. But the fact that it’s delivered by a serial philanderer as he’s thinking about seducing Kitty in a conference hotel room tells you that playwright Lucinda Coxon is not merely interested in talk-show bromides.
Coxon’s portrait of modern married life is by turns sparkling and devastating, and the Milwaukee Rep company deliver it with great relish and intelligence. In director Jon Jory’s hands, the dialogue has the zip and energy of classic Broadway comedy—think Philip Barry or even Preston Sturges. And it’s great to see members of the Rep company in full comic flower.
But Coxon isn’t just out to show us how wild and crazy our modern lives are. Like its title, Happy Now? is soaked in dark duplicity. The characters are constantly asking themselves the question posed by the play’s title, and answering it with a convoluted sense of self-awareness, a fun-house mirror of self-delusion and deception. Its final tableau suggests, to coin the t-shirt slogan, “Life is Good,” only if our expectations are limited to a quiet night in front of sitcom reruns.
As such, it’s a terrific acting exercise in subtext and depth of character, including the contradictions that define the human animal. One character launches into a tirade about private school education, and we know there’s something deeper and more personal behind his rage. Another man emotionally abuses his wife in full view of the couple’s friends, and we can see th
e self-hatred beneath it. And a gay man paints a rosy romantic picture of his life with a new, much younger lover. But we eventually discover the wishful thinking at the relationship’s core.
Jory is a first-time Rep director who is an American theater legend—the man behind the Humana Festival of New American Plays, and the production shows his skill and imagination as a director. The look of Happy Now? mirrors the thwarted dreams of its characters—a life of abundance without compromise or inefficiency. Scenes emerge out of a wall of pristine furniture and appliances (designed by Robert Brill). And robotic extras deliver props and accessories with cool precision. The play moves like a dream, with Jory using the whole of the Powerhouse thrust stage, bouncing the action from one area to another with a mere lighting shift.
And he has a great ensemble at his disposal, including familiar Rep figures like Deborah Staples, Lee Ernst, Torrey Hanson, Gerry Nugent and Brian Vaughn, and Seattle-based actor Julie Briskman. This is only the second production of in the U.S. (it’s slated to open in New York in January), and it’s hard to imagine one that will capture Coxon’s brittle optimism.
Review- Happy Now?
Listen closely to the dialogue of Happy Now?, which opened this weekend at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and you’ll hear some familiar 21st-century phrases. “Give yourself permission to be happy,” says Michael to Kitty, halfway through the second act. It’s a line that wouldn’t be out of place in the latest Dr. Phil hugfest. But the fact that it’s delivered by a serial philanderer as he’s thinking about seducing Kitty in a conference hotel room tells you that playwright Lucinda Coxon is not merely interested in talk-show bromides. Coxon’s portrait of modern married life is by turns sparkling and devastating, and…
