How does the song go? If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands and as the curtain came down on Thom Sellwood’s musical, people certainly were. With a burst of Pharrell Williams’ Happy as a slightly obvious backing track this monologue was clearly a very personal journey. This was a show within a show where Sellwood was also examining loneliness, the need for anonymous sex and desperation. He ponders on the question, does social media and the use of apps solve all our problems? This is actually a very clever and well formatted show and as an original piece of theatre both intriguing and at times very funny, especially when he talks about the pressures of being part of gay society, where paranoia easily creeps into your day to day life. This is an exposé on modern day drug taking and well worth a view and should be seen by a larger audience. There is also stunning support by his fellow actor Miss Carrie Marx who explains her version of ‘Happy’ and how she achieves her state of euphoria. Happy comes at a price. Profoundly modern theatre at its best. Another fantastic addition to the current Queer Festival running at the King’s Head Theatre in Islington.
****
Happy, a chemsex musical runs to Saturday 26 August. Box office 0207 226 8561 or kingsheadtheatre.com.
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