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?dabdXc ^U 7P__X]Tbb MTCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Happy Now?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; a clever but tangential slice-of-life
By David Templeton
8
n Happy Now? by Lucinda Coxon, now playing at Mill Valleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Marin Theatre Company, a modern woman with â&#x20AC;&#x153;everythingâ&#x20AC;?â&#x20AC;&#x201D;great job, nice home, loving husband, the right number of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; discovers that â&#x20AC;&#x153;everythingâ&#x20AC;? isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t everything itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cracked up to be. Kitty (Rosemary Garrison) is swiftly climbing the ladder at the cancer-fighting charity she works for, successfully putting on a confident exterior, while inside she is beginning to crack under the pressure of perfection. Her husband, Johnny (Alex Moggridge), is working his way down the ladder, having recently given up a profitable career as a lawyer to pursue his love of teaching high school English. Johnnyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best friend, Miles (a brilliant Mark Anderson Phillips), is a self-destructive alcoholic with a mean-streak and a wife (Mollie Stickney) on the verge of throwing him out. Kittyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sassy gay friend Carl (well drawn by Kevin Rolston) is suffering through his latest heartbreak while managing to stay strong and supportive for Kitty as she deals with her elderly divorced parents, one of whom appears to be dying (heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in the hospital with a ruptured aorta), while her mother is merely pretending to be dying. Still, Kittyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s handcrafted façade of satisfaction and happiness is straining under the pressure, and it receives an unexpected fracture when she meets Michael at a conference. Played by Andrew Hurteau with a dazzling blend of unctuous sleaziness and weirdly appealing straightforwardness, Michael is the playâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best creation. Overweight and plainly ridiculous, the married Michael has found a way to turn his unthreatening demeanor into a successful hobby as a womanizer.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The trick is there is no trick,â&#x20AC;? he explains in the opening scene, after Kitty has deflected his initial attempt at hotel bar seduction. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m an out-of-shape clown,â&#x20AC;? he says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m safe. Women feel good with me because Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not a tit man or a leg manâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m a woman man.â&#x20AC;? Though Kitty avoids Michaelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lecherous clutches, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s something about the guy that gets under her skin. Yet when she runs into him later, and he appears not to remember her, her confidence begins to shatter, along with the various marriages, careers and dreams of all of her friends and acquaintances. Some of the writing is quite clever. Coxonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s chief strength is writing snappy dialogue. As a storyteller, however, Coxon shows a lack of constraint. There are far too many tangential bits, so many so that Kittyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s struggle for haveit-all happiness begins to look less like the central focus of the play and more like a side story in Coxonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s existential, everything-butthe-kitchen-sink data dump. The direction by Jasson Minadakis is incredibly strong, with excellent use of the four projection screens worked seamlessly into Melpomene Katakalosâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; sleek set. The way he stages the transitions from scene to overlapping scene is so clever and elegantâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;with one scene lingering a bit as the next beginsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;one has to wonder why itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not done like this more often. For all its strengths, there is a lingering dullness to the play, a feeling of redundancy and staleness. In the end, Happy Now? is a play that attempts to address universal issuesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; issues it does occasionally glance atâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but in the end, this unexceptional comedy has nothing original to say about them. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Happy Nowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; runs Tuesdayâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Sunday through Dec. 5 at Marin Theatre Company. Show times vary. 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley. $33â&#x20AC;&#x201C;$57. 415.388.5208.
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Photo by Devon Shaw
Rosemary Garrison and pal Kevin Rolston discuss death, heartbreak and downsizing in Lucinda Coxonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s latest.
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