Review – In The Republic of Happiness, Royal Court

Let me get this out of the way early on in case you don’t read further and miss the crucial and vital message I have to give to you. It’s easy:  Do not go to see this play.

I can’t emphasise this enough: do not go to see this play. If you’ve already bought tickets, cut your losses and throw them away. Don’t return them, don’t sell them, don’t give them to a friend: throw them away. Actually, thinking about it you might want to shred them or return them to your pharmacist for safe disposal just to be sure. (I should note that this was a preview; but short of a rewrite…)

The good news is that it’s relatively short (1h 50m, no interval) but the bad news is that it’s not nearly short enough. I’ve rarely hated a play as much as I did this one. And the lack of interval means that only the people on the end of the rows can escape and get their evenings back.

It starts off in straightforward enough style, a fractious family dinner with a pregnant daughter and senile grandfather. So far, so much standard Royal Court fare: a kitchen sink drama where the sink is from John Lewis of Hungerford. It’s all ruined by the arrival of uncle Bob (Paul Ready) who has a few home truths to share. None of this is great. It feels forced and wildly unrealistic and  some of the performances are fairly mixed.

Unfortunately, in retrospect, this short section was the soaring highlight of the evening.

There is an improv game played in drama schools called “Yes, And”. The concept is that one actor makes a statement, after which another actor agrees and goes on to add to the discussion with the phrase “Yes, and…”  Apparently after working on “Yes And” exercises, actors ultimately learn how to do scenes in which they embrace the ideas and concepts offered by fellow performers.

The rest of the production is, essentially, one very long and boring game of “Yes, And” where the characters make seemingly random and unconnected statements which are then repeated and embellished upon by the other characters. And more often than not have the word “cock”, “cunt” or “vagina” added.

I’m making it sound more entertaining and clever than it actually is. I cannot emphasise how deeply unfunny, overwhelmingly unrewarding and unremittingly tedious the result is.  By way of example:

Character 1:  This is unremittingly tedious.

Character 2:  Unremittingly.

Character 3:  Unremittingly tedious.

Character 1:  This really is …

Character 1 & 3: … unremittingly tedious …

Character 1:  … and deeply unfunny

Character 4:  Don’t tell me that this isn’t unremittingly tedious.

Character 5:  No, don’t tell me that this isn’t unremittingly tedious.

Character 2:  I know that this is unremittingly tedious, tedious, unremittingly tedious.

Character 3:  Deeply unfunny and unremittingly tedious.

Character 1:  Deeply tedious and unremittingly unfunny.

Character 7:  Tedious, unfunny, unremittingly tedious, deeply unfunny, a woefully written waste of everyone’s time …

Character 4:  … not least the audience

Character 2:  Unremittingly tedious.

Character 2:  Unremittingly.

Character 3:  Unremittingly tedious.

Character 1:  This really is …

Character 1 & 3: … unremittingly tedious …

Character 1:  … and deeply unfunny

Character 4:  Don’t tell me that this isn’t unremittingly tedious.

Character 5:  No, don’t tell me that this isn’t unremittingly tedious.

Character 2:  Vagina.

Character 4:  How unremittingly tedious …

Character 1 & 4:  … and deeply unfunny …

Character 4:  … this all is.

Character 3:  All of it is.

Character 2:  All of it is.  All of it is.  All of it is.

Character 6:  It’s difficult to explain quite how unremittingly tedious this is for one hour and fifty one minutes.

Character 1:  Unremittingly tedious.

Character 2:  So unremittingly tedious and incomprehensible and just a waste of everyone’s time.

Character 1:  Vagina.

[Song]

 

Yes, there are a few songs, which are actually quite good.  And the staging is pretty good.  And I thought the performances were quite good, although my companion rightfully pointed out that it’s difficult to evaluate a performance when the characters are essentially talking in tongues and entirely indecipherable.

Avoid.

(PS.  This was a preview)