BWW Reviews: THE HAPPY ONES at Seattle Public Theater

Seattle Public Theater is presenting the Northwest premiere of Julie Marie Myatt's drama "The Happy Ones".  And while I appreciated the performances in the production I didn't really feel the play went anywhere.

Set in California in 1975 and 1976, "The Happy Ones" follows the not so happy Walter Wells (K. Brian Neel) as he copes with the sudden and tragic loss of his family.  With the help of his best friend Gary (Shawn Law), Gary's new girlfriend Mary Ellen (Macall Gordon) and oddly enough the Vietnamese refugee who caused the tragedy Bao (David Hsieh), Walter tries to work through his grief and put back together some assemblance of a life.  And I think that is my biggest problem with the play.  All it really does is take us through Walter's journey of grief.  We don't really overcome anything, we just watch as he goes through the stages.  I've never been a fan of shows that are someone else's therapy on stage and that's what this felt like.

Luckily as heavy handed as this could be, it's in the hands of a very gifted group.  David Gassner's direction keeps performances subtle and grounded in reality.  Gordon is wonderful as a divorcee just trying to fix her life and everyone else's in the process.  Law is great as the commitment phobic friend who just wants things the way they were.  Neel quite nicely portrays a man whose entire world has crashed around him and yet he still tries to remain happy, at least on the outside.  And Hsieh turns in a stellar performance as the refugee just trying to atone and find his own place in this world.

Like I said, it wasn't the performances that left me wanting it was the script.  The structure of it just didn't hold together for me.  With several short scenes starting out the play, some of which felt completely superfluous, it made it difficult to get into the corner of this man as we were too busy jumping from one location to the next.  Furthermore, it seemed the playwright chose to have the characters tell us what they were feeling rather than have it come out in the dialog and it just came across as forced.

I applaud SPT for tackling a difficult and new play.  I just wish it would have had more impact.

"The Happy Ones" from Seattle Public Theater plays at Greenlake's Bathhouse Theater through April 10^th.  For tickets or information contact the Seattle Public Theater box office at 206-524-1300 or visit them online at www.seattlepublictheater.org.

Photo credit: Paul Bestock

 

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