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HAPPY NOW?
By Lucinda Coxon
October 20 – November 15, 2009
Quadracci Powerhouse Theater
  
More information about the play:
Is this my life? My one and only life? –Kitty,
HAPPY NOW?
Come join us in the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater for a darkly comic
tale of modern marriage and parenting, as we explore contemporary,
new writing by Lucinda Coxon in a production featuring Rep Company
Members Deb Staples, Gerry Neugent, Torrey Hanson, Brian Vaughn,
Lee Ernst and Rose Pickering. HAPPY NOW? was first presented in London’s
National Theatre and made its American debut with Yale Repertory
Theatre.
Playwright Lucinda Coxon understands something about the sometimes
harried experience of being a working parent. As a new mother herself,
Coxon recalls seeing all around her,
“a great number of people who were trying, often desperately,
to manage working, parenthood and frankly going round the bend.
. . . The thing about raising children is that the years are short
but the days can be long. These people were tired and angry, and
somehow having to come to terms not just with the less palatable
obligations of family life, but also a wider sense of failure in
their lives. . . . ”
The world of Coxon’s play is filled with the trappings that
both compel and dissatisfy these anxious and restless young professionals:
jobs that bring great pay but require long hours and high stress;
children who have become little accessories in the lives of busy
moms and dads (the children in HAPPY NOW? are never seen on stage,
but heard only through offstage voices); and the disillusioning truths
of alcoholic and self-destructive friends all around them.
Despite these seemingly depressing topics, Coxon’s play is
witty, intelligent, fiercely entertaining and focuses on the lives
of contemporary professionals who seemingly have everything and every
reason to be contented. But she does give us a sneak peek at the
build-up of daily psychic stresses that can push a reasonably well-adjusted
adult to the breaking point. We are introduced to Kitty who, on the
surface, seems to be the picture of success: fabulous career as a
high-powered executive for a cancer charity; handsome and caring
husband; two wonderful children; entertaining friends; and enough
money for all the small comforts they may ever want. On the flip
side are the obligations and responsibilities: an ailing boss, whose
responsibilities Kitty must shoulder; a husband who left a high-paying
corporate job to pursue his passion for teaching; a hospitalized
father; a needy and self-absorbed mother; and two children Kitty
barely recognizes. Even her husband, Johnny, doesn’t understand
the unevenness of the daily routines and burdens: “Don’t
wake the children,” he cautions her during a fight. “It
took me an hour to get them down tonight.” “It always
does,” Kitty replies sharply, “it’s just that it’s
usually my hour.”
These middle-class professionals have never had it so good, but
the pressures of working too hard and sustaining relationships prove
surprisingly difficult. Kitty’s composure starts to disintegrate,
and an encounter with a drunken businessman at a work conference
triggers a feeling of nagging dissatisfaction buried beneath diverse
distractions. He takes her rebuff in stride, but leaves her with
an unsettling prophecy:
“One day something goes wrong for you. Some small thing, but
with the life you’re trying to lead – pulled in so many
different directions – it’s just the kind of thing that
breaks the camel’s back. And you just want to feel better
about yourself, and you try some very expensive chocolate, and
you try a glass of really good red wine. And then you start to
wonder . . . you start to think: I wonder if that sad-sack guy
still wants to be nice to me.”
Is Kitty hopelessly stuck in a comfortable but frantic, anxiety-prone
existence or will she ever be reconciled to the reality of her life?
Milwaukee Rep is proud to present the Midwest Regional Premiere
of this lively, sharp and entertaining play, where having it all
can sometimes be too much and seething, discontented professionals
wonder where true happiness lies.
Kristin Crouch, Literary Director
HAPPY NOW?
By Lucinda Coxon
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Previews: October 20 – October 22, 2009
October 23 – November 15, 2009
Tickets: $10.00 – $60.00
HAPPY NOW? contains adult language and themes.
CAST LIST
Julie Briskman
Lee E. Ernst•
Torrey Hanson•
Gerard Neugent•
Rose Pickering•
Deborah Staples•
Brian Vaughn•
•Member of The Rep’s Resident Acting Company.
THE REP IN DEPTH
Join us for The Rep In Depth, our lively informative half-hour talk
which starts 45 minutes before every performance in the Quadracci
Powerhouse Theater.
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