“How to be happy” at The Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond

I often go to Richmond Theatre so it was a pleasant change to visit it’s smaller, more modern and permanent “in the round” neighbour as I haven’t been there for many years. It’s like a neater, smaller version of The Donmar in The West End.
I was surprised by its modernity, intimacy (capacity for around 140 people) and freshness although it struck me that the audience was less diverse – they appeared younger, more educated and, well, more affluent. But perhaps this was dictated by the nature of the play rather than the theatre?

The subject of this new play by David Lewis intrigued me. As my original training was as a psychologist and I have more than passing interest in therapy, the promotional material outlined the plot as being about a man who had enjoyed success as the author of a self-help book on how to be happy but who was experiencing challenges in his life as his second marriage, his role as father, his writing career and health were all facing challenges. It doesn’t sound very appealing except that it was billed as a comedy.

The set was simple – a large L shaped sofa in cream and pale green surrounded by some modern side and coffee tables. It may even have come from Dwell in Richmond. I had earlier noticed a sign in the ladies loos indicating that offers for the sofa after the production were welcomed.

To begin with I was a little confused – and it took me a while to work out that I was watching two separate scenes simultaneously. There are two couples – Emma (Paul’s ex-wife) and her second husband Graham (an advertising guru) and Paul (the main character - “Mr Happy”) and his second wife Katie (a rather stiff but stylish nursery school teacher). Then there is the almost 18 year old daughter Daisy who lives with Emma and Graham and her young baby half-brother Jack.

There were some early laughs as we watched Paul play “Angry Birds” on his iPhone and Emma react grumpily to a crying baby in the early hours of the morning. There was an early introduction to one of the main (political) themes which is the role that consumerism plays in driving the capitalist economy – and some people’s distress who “use money they don’t have to buy things that they don’t need to impress people that they don’t like”. So some marketing and advertising folk may feel threatened by a few of the views expressed.

There were some memorable laugh-out-loud scenes such as the prospect of having sex while wearing a cap of sensors to monitor brain activity, the interruption of a torrid sex scene by one of them inspecting a chocolate wrapper to see if it was Fair Trade and, of course, the biscuit moment.

The play captured well the reality of conversations between people who share responsibility for a child yet who live with other people. And whilst there were moments when I felt the actress playing Daisy sometimes came across as either a little too young or a little too mature, her portrayal of the behaviour of what it must be like to be an older teenager ”tuning into” her parents’ psyches was authentic. As was her suspicion that she caused the break up and her desire to see them reunited.

I shall keep the programme as the balloons on the front bearing the three cognitive behaviourist Ellis statements (“Failure is more common than success”, “The world does not oblige” and “Whatever you do, many will dislike you”) used at Daisy’s party are good to remember.

In terms of answering the question, the script offered up “The way to get what you want is to want what you have” or something similar. Yet in terms of the plot, the implied way to avoid unhappiness is not to carry unrequited love within you. Or to hide from your true feelings by introducing distractions into your life.

Because of the simultaneous scenes, the scripting and staging were artful. And it took concentration to understand initially what was going on, which meant that I did not connect with the characters as quickly as I might in other productions. But both I and my 13 year old daughter enjoyed it very much and both the funny and more poignant scenes are likely to remain in our memories for some time.

I like a play that makes me think – even if I don’t necessarily feel comfortable with some of the ideas that it might force me to confront. So it felt a little like being in therapy too. Some might find that uncomfortable. But I am sure that the play could be enjoyed on a purely superficial level too.

Be warned, the bar is tiny with only two staff and it took the entirety of the interval to get some drinks – and as we were not allowed to take drinks into the theatre it meant that I had to leave a rather nice glass of red wine almost untouched. I’ll remember to order interval drinks next time.