Review: Happiness Ltd, Wardrobe Theatre

The brainchild of Plymouth’s New Model Theatre, Happiness Ltd is all about big ideas, creativity and the daily struggle to cope with the oppressive modern world.

Vi (Gabrielle Sheppard) deals with her post-breakup depression by writing herself into a video game which rewards her for completing mundane daily tasks. Her goal is to fill people with a sense of pride for doing the little things – for ticking along in life.

Her rambunctious best friend and co-worker, coder Tyler (Liam Salmon) turns the idea into an augmented reality app. He is quick to develop an addiction for the game, demonstrating its power to stablise mental health issues.

Despite being set in the arcane world of indie gaming, the plot has familiar themes. Vi expresses boundless ambition as a creative millennial, struggling against a competitive society to make her mark. Her friendship with Tyler starts off tight, and initially the characters create good energy bouncing off each other. Eventually, though, the risks on the road to Vi’s stardom put too much strain on their relationship.

At first the concept of the game seems ingenious: however, its success reveals a dark side. Drawing the attention of corporate backers, it is rebranded and becomes a control mechanism for companies to boost productivity in their disillusioned workforces. This plot development hints towards a dystopian vision, or is it just the backstage reality of capitalism?

Considering that Happiness Ltd opens with a focus on Vi’s depression, the play is surprisingly light-hearted and humorous. Writer Tom Nicholas spins the action within a bubble of video gaming. There are points in the play where Vi and Tyler dive through the screen, carrying out their daily interactions from within a game. Perhaps it is this meta-narrative of virtual reality which dulls the initial emotional depth that one would expect from the play.

It is irritating, though, that the issue of mental health is skirted around. Although it does appear briefly when Tyler confesses to having been suicidal, Vi never opens up to explicitly talk about her feelings. At points she succeeds in standing as a strong female character: however, there is a sense of immaturity in her lack of support for her best friend, and a gaping hole in her own depth as a character.

That said, the four actors play their parts extremely well. Their stereotypes come across effectively and they balance each other out, creating good energy on stage. Daniel, the 47-year-old washed up indie gaming director, gives contrast to the younger, passionate generation. Jean, the creative producer at a multinational corporation, lights up the stage with her deadpan comedy and ruthless attitude.

The minimalist set design works well, giving the performance continuity and enabling rapid scene changes. The Wardrobe Theatre provides an excellent stage for this purpose. The video-game theme is perfectly amplified by the sound engineering: the digitised voices incorporate the audience into the game, especially during the Xbox scenes.

Happiness Ltd is an incredibly enjoyable watch: an innovative idea about inspiring ideas with strong performances and bags of energy. Nevertheless, it would have been prudent to use their sell-out platform to openly explore the issues and realities of mental health.

Happiness Ltd played at the Wardrobe Theatre on Tue, Feb 20 and Wed, Feb 21. For more from New Model Theatre, visit newmodeltheatre.com