A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) (2021)
Book and lyrics by Jon Brittain; Music by Matthew Floyd Jones
Performances: 29 June to 4 July 2021, Old Fire Station - delayed from November 2020 by lockdown
Contents
Introduction
"A joyful, buoyant, gleeful, slightly silly, family friendly, sugar coated, unrelenting and completely super happy show. Except for all the bits about depression!”
A fun, silly and sad show for anyone whose brain isn’t always on their side. Sally’s a happy person. She doesn’t let little things get her down and almost never cries. But she’s got an illness. It makes her feel like she isn’t the person she wants to be… but she doesn’t want anyone to know about it.
Cast
- Maeve Curry - Sally
- Emily Windham - Mum, Tash, Karen, Grace, Support Group Member, Counsellor, Doctor
- Daniel Paul - Dad, Toby, Darren, Roadie, Newsboy, Support Group Member
Crew
- Musical Director and Piano - Andrew Chadney
- Assistant Director - Eleanor Hindson
- Stage Manager - Graham Clements
- Lighting Design - Bob Callender
- Operator - Jo Boniface
- Rigging - Sean Thomas
- Costumes - Jenny Bennett, cast and crew
- Production Photographs - Jon Schick
- Theatre Rep - Barry Heselden
- Set Painting - Carole Ironside
- Set Construction - Barry Heselden, Ben Rathe, Hans Mudlamootoo, Graham Clements, Alexander Ringo, Mark Ireson
- Special thanks to: Ben Rathe, Lisa Thomas, Chaz Doyle, Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones, Naomi Liddle, Bex Law and our army of volunteers in Front of House, Box Office and Bar
Reviews
We may have had to wait a few months, but it was worth it. A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad) was excellent. Such a clever way to handle a subject that people still don't want to talk about. A great play and a great production. Lovely performances, deftly handled, that entertained and made you think a bit differently. What more could you want? Congratulations to Mark and the whole team. And such a wonderful buzz at the theatre and the Feast stand today. I don't know about football, but theatre's coming home.
Simon Gleisner
Very well done to the cast, MD, crew and director of Super Happy Story. Pithily written, with good gags and some genuinely moving moments, plus a handful of catchy numbers, it's a great example of a small-scale show with big things to say. Congrats to all.
Helen Chadney
It was such a rewarding production: clever, honest, funny & brilliantly performed. Wonderful to be back at SLT after so long & to see so many lovely friends
Jenny MacLaughlin
Super singing & acting, a host of characters making up an interesting and different approach to a difficult subject. Well done cast & crew, great to be back in!
David Carr
Thank you Super Happy People for your wonderfully presented and very poignant show. I absolutely loved it x
Audrey Lindsay
Really poignant and yet uplifting. Brill cast.
Lorna Felix
What a wonderful uplifting show.
Malcolm Woodman
What a great show. So glad you finally managed to put it on. Totally gripping throughout, and beautiful singing and a wonderful cast. The first live theatre I’ve seen since October - I was quite overwhelmed and very moved. Congratulations and enjoy the rest of the run.
Katrina Rublowsky
Congrats to Mark Ireson, cast and crew of Super Happy - a show worth the wait! Loved it, thank you x
Cal Beckett
And finally a word from Bob Callender, our lighting designer: So I’m a bit of a shit lighting designer cos I was meant to be mostly ignoring tonight’s dress of Super Happy Show and concentrating on lighting levels and stuff, but the bastards sucked me in and I ended up forgetting about my job and just chuckling away every time some new character popped up or catchy tune got sung. Also there are some very touching bits. It’s pretty great actually. You should go see it.
Gallery
Reminiscences and Anecdotes
Members are encouraged to write about their experiences of working on or seeing this production. Please leave your name. Anonymous entries may be deleted.
Meeting the writers
Jon Brittain and Matthew Floyd Jones came to the Saturday night performance
See Also
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Or add anything that is related within this site. The author's page for instance or other plays with a similar theme.
