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Happy Hour
(Tmesis Theatre)
Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham
***** UNITY Theatre Commission and Tmesis Theatre
brought this interesting piece of physical theatre to the stage of the
Old Rep as part of their UK National Tour. It has their trademark combination of
physicality, humour and music telling a story of our society’s obsession
with striving for happiness and success. The piece explores the idea
behind the ‘happiness industry’ in which happiness is packaged up and
sold to us in the form of self help materials and marketing. But can
happiness really be bought? Can we really ‘learn’ to be happy? Set in an office on level 3, the workers race
against the clock to reach their daily quota of smiley faces, whilst
‘big brother’ on the top floor watches their every move and monitors
just how happy they really are.
Success is rewarded by moving up a floor whilst failure could mean the basement. (This ‘climbing the ladder of success’ scenario is cleverly portrayed in an amazing routine with an actual ladder; physical theatre at its best and possibly most demanding.) The pressure and stress of trying to create happiness soon takes its toll and chaos breaks out on level 3!
There is an ingenious working set which
creatively transforms to portray all aspects of the office. The four
actors (Ian Cook, Adam Davies, Eleni Edipidi and Jennifer Essex) work in
perfect synchronicity to bring an energetic, physical, dynamic and
thought provoking performance. They are all equally strong in their
roles with slick performances and remarkable choreography delivered at
pace. They are indeed masters of their art form. The creative team and actors have successfully
produced a humour packed, sometimes dark look at how we perceive the
pursuit of happiness. If you love physical theatre you will love this
production. See their website for
tour dates and venues
http://tmesistheatre.com Rosemary Manjunath and Elizabeth Smith 03-03-17 |
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