I Want To Be Happy is a deeply human and infrequently surreal exploration of affection, loss, and the individuality of happiness.
The play follows Binka, a guinea pig in a testing facility, who’s splendidly realised and commandingly portrayed by Jennifer Ludlam. Paul is the laboratory technician assigned to take care of Binka, whose portrayal is a masterclass in subtlety by Joel Tobeck. Milo Cawthorne additionally lends his appreciable expertise in physicality, to nice success. The performers do a tremendous job of swapping, and vacillating between, totally different traits. The story is fascinating, and the dialogue is punchy. Carl Bland has created a wealthy world, stuffed with nuanced characters and deeply human experiences. Ben Crowder’s route permits the script to flourish as motifs and recurring themes are well-utilised all through.
The two standout, repeated parts inside the play are the themes of mimesis and miscommunication. These present nice dramatic cohesion to the play, as an entire. The set is chrome-plated, and so acts like a mirror. There is a mirroring of dialogue, and needs between the characters. Most spectacular, nevertheless, is the mirroring of the macro and the micro. The play splits motion between the size of a guinea pig, and the size of a human. There are many cases of objects transcending these scales, and both changing into big or miniscule. Not solely is that this visually spectacular, nevertheless it additionally helps exhibit the gulf in understanding between the 2 characters. This lack of know-how can also be current within the dialogue. The characters are sometimes speaking at cross functions, conversing with out ever anticipating comprehension. It is an fascinating restriction to put on dialogue, and creates a compelling scenario for the viewers, who can perceive each characters. More than all else, the characters are unified by their want to be completely satisfied, and to do something to achieve their targets.
As alluded to earlier, the set is intricate and intensely creative. The human-sized guinea pig cage is especially imposing. It is an elaborately designed present and the general impact is a profitable mixing of ‘‘heightened’ and ‘realistic’ options. It can’t be overstated how gorgeous and efficient the scaling of things is. Puppetry can also be used very impressively to warp the angle of dimension. Between these many parts it’s a technically complicated present.
The play is a visually putting and well-executed piece. The constituent items are creatively coherent and the subject material thought-provoking. It is a tough ask to painting guinea pigs and people on the identical stage, and to delve into the minutia of animal testing. However, each Bland’s script and the forged rise admirably to the problem, and the viewers is left pondering deeper questions concerning particular person versus common happiness.
I Want To Be Happy performs on the Herald Theatre, Aotea Centre, 18th August to the 2nd September, 2023
