06:16:51 am 
Happy Now? - Sometimes It's Hard to Tell
Categories: UncategorizedShe’s got everything: the perfect job, a house, a husband who loves her and two darling kids. What more could a woman want? Well for starters, maybe someone else’s life. But whose? Is anyone ever really happy or are we always longing for something better? That’s the crux of Lucinda Coxon’s witty dark comedy Happy Now? playing at Yale Repertory Theatre.
Kitty (Mary Bacon) juggles home, kids, a sick father and an irritating, attention-grabbing mother (Joan MacIntosh) with a career while supporting her husband, Johnny (Kelly AuCoin), who trades shark-infested waters for a blackboard jungle when he leaves his law firm and becomes an elementary school teacher. Among those drifting in and out of their lives is Kitty’s best friend Carl (master of comedic timing Brian Keane) who is convinced gays have a better idea of how to be happy in relationships than his straight friends. There's also Bea and Miles, (Katharine Powell and Quentin Maré) whose marriage is over, though they haven’t admitted it, and a sleazy adulterous cad, Michael (David Andrew Macdonald who expertly oozes slime), who hits on Kitty.
The “no-subject-off-limits” dialogue is sharp and rings true. These characters say what we only dare to think, especially Miles, helped by an ever-present glass of wine to drown out reality and help him feign interest in his wife’s boring home remodeling project and the dilemma of choosing the right shade of beige.
“Bea, you look like you’re trying to poo out a pine cone. Backwards. Grab another bottle out of the fridge, John, and I’ll dust off the glasses,” Miles quips.All of the relationships are stretched, some so far they snap. The interaction between the characters is monitored, literally, in a visual and audio effect (from designers Matt Frey and David Budries) which shows the rhythm, or sometimes flat-line status of the relationships and is propelled by spoken lines from a fairytale about a couple who has everything they want.
Pieces of Sarah Pearline’s set representing the couples' homes, a school room and a hotel are suspended above the stage and float down and are met by other pieces appearing through trap doors or sliding in from the wings. The design contributes to a feeling that all of their lives are entwined, but dangle waiting to see whether the characters save their relationships and find happiness.
Director Liz Diamond garners strong performances, particularly from Macdonald, Maré and MacIntosh, who with only a few lines, creates a guilt-tripping, self-centered martyr of mother who’s as funny as she is frightening. The dialogue, droll and sparkling in the first act, throws its own flatline in the second where Coxon seems more focused on wrapping up the action than continuing the “did-he-really-say-that?” repartee.
Coxon’s script, in its American premiere, leaves unresolved the question of whether these forty-something Londoners are happy yet.“I could have been anyone once, but it’s too late now,” Kitty says, yet she finds a lot of happiness hidden in her rather ordinary life.
---- Lauren Yarger
Happy Now? plays at Yale Repertory Theatre (1120 Chapel Street, New Haven, CT) through Nov. 15. Performances times are Tuesday-Saturday at 8pm with 2:00 pm performances on Wednesday and Saturday. Tickets are $25-$65 and can be purchased by calling 203-432-1234 or by visiting www.yalerep.org.
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