Get Happy
The Pleasence Theatre • 27th February - 4th March
It was back to the Pleasance last night to see Joseph Aldous’s debut show Get Happy. Ostensibly a one man play written and performed by Aldous, Get Happy is also a great example of a production in which a collection of connecting theatrical skillsets have come together to create what is an impressively slick show. More of which later, but at its heart this is a monologue about one mans ‘struggle’ to get himself happy.
Adam (Aldous) finds himself at a crossroads. Having watched all of his friends move on with their lives, his own has become somewhat stuck in a rut, which prompts him to try and turn things around. All he has to do is follow a ‘simple’ three point plan. Hold down a job, pay his increasingly late rent, and find himself a more meaningful relationship…. oh yes, and dance! Aided and abetted by a seemingly sentient, not to mention omnipresent Alexa, (who finds it easier to hand out lifestyle advice than to fulfil Adam’s one simple request to play ‘C’Mon’ by Kesha), Adam is convinced he can not only get himself happy… but that his happiness can be greater than those around him. Not such an easy task when he is measuring his own happiness by the perceived happiness of others.
The show gets off to a particularly informal start as Aldous, wearing a minimal white t-shirt and gym shorts, flits across the stage greeting various members of the audience as they take to their seats. (I was genuinely surprised not to see him in the peach sweater and blue jogging bottoms worn in the trailer, so prolific had the promotion for the show been across various social media channels). “Are you in character now?” I overheard one member of the audience ask him as they were welcomed to their seat. “It’s a fine line”, replied Aldous moments before the show starts. And so it appeared to be as, despite playing a character called Adam, the first half of the show plays almost like a well honed stand-up comedy routine, both in its delivery, style and energy. It certainly works well in creating a rapport with the audience, and Aldous quickly establishes ‘Adam’ as a likeable character who the audience are immediately able to relate to, which is fine whilst the comedy flows thick and fast, but how will they react when the behavioural mirror being held up turns several shades darker?
And darker Get Happy certainly becomes. So desperate is Adam in fast-tracking his quest for happiness that his life slowly begins to spiral out of control. The incessant nightly bar crawls in Soho begin to impact his ability to function properly at his tenuous zero-hours contract job, and as his friends slowly drift away he becomes increasingly desperate in his attempt to find love or, such is Adam’s determination to get happy whatever it takes, utilise the countless methods at his disposal to at least fill the void with sex.
As previously mentioned, this is a vey well put together show and, despite the staging being quite minimalistic, (Designer, Blythe Brett) everything is beautifully integrated and amazingly well utilised, from a large circle of light used to represent Alexa, to a similarly circular raised part of the stage and a small wall of tube lights, all skilfully used to help create the different environments in which Adam finds himself. This is also helped by some of the most consistently tight lighting (Jonathan Chan) and sound (Anna Short, Annie May Fletcher) cues I think I have ever seen in a show, and are all deftly harnessed by director Piers Black to help lift this production far beyond the confines of the compact stage.
Joseph Aldous is himself clearly both a gifted writer and engaging actor, deftly able to keep the audiences sympathy with Adam in both the comic and tragic parts of his journey. Whilst, on the whole that transition is handled well, (if a little surprising just how dark Aldous is willing to take his story), the pace in the second half of the show felt less even and could have possibly benefitted from a bit of judicious tightening overall, there being a number of extended pauses that felt just a little too long. That aside, Get Happy is an incredibly strong debut from Joseph Aldous, and we’ll definitely be keeping an eye on this emerging talent.
Whilst tonight might not have actually revealed the secret of how we can all ‘get happy’, it does question whether we are even looking for it in any of the right places?
Alexa, play ‘C’Mon’ by Kesha!
★★★★
review: Simon J. Webb