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About Happy Now?
a note from the artistic director
I am delighted to welcome you to the American premiere of Lucinda Coxon's Happy Now? at Yale Rep. Lucinda may not be a household name in this country, but she has distinguished herself in contemporary British drama and film over the last decade, and it’s a pleasure to know that Yale Rep audiences are the first in America to discover this bracingly funny new play, which debuted at London's National Theatre earlier this year.
Seeing this production take shape under the direction of Yale Rep’s own Liz Diamond—and through the vital invention of seven remarkable actors—has already given me the opportunity to experience the poignant wit and vivid ambiguity of the world Lucinda Coxon has imagined. It is a world that is geographically removed from, but spiritually close to, America. After all, “the pursuit of happiness” is enshrined in our Declaration of Independence as an inalienable right, and there is arguably no culture on earth more concerned with happiness than our own. The bravery of the playwright who mines the aspirations and foibles of contemporary men and women is, for me, cause for both raucous celebration and uncomfortable self-examination.
As an artist, Lucinda is not alone in her capacity to deliver the universality of human experience in particularly compelling cultural idiom. While Happy Now? is playing here, Yale Rep and the World Performance Project join together again to present No Boundaries: A Series of Global Performances. The series comprises dance, music and theatre from around the world, beginning with the Festival of International Dance in the New Theater at 1156 Chapel Street from November 11-15, and featuring new work choreographed by Yasmeen Godder (Israel), Opiyo Okach (Kenya), and Yvonne Rainer (USA).
As you know, we’re working to provide you with the most exciting and provocative evenings in the theatre that we can, and we hope that your experience here will also be as comfortable and pleasurable as possible. To that end, we invite you downstairs to the Rep Lounge at intermission: the coffee is free, courtesy of Starbucks, and the décor is new and better, with more improvements to come throughout the year.
And as always, I look forward to hearing your thoughtful responses to the work we do, either in person here at the theatre or by email (james.bundy@yale.edu).
Thank you for being here with us for this performance—if you enjoy it, please tell a friend!
Sincerely,
James Bundy
Artistic Director
