All The Happy Things

First staged at Theatre 503 in 2022 as a 60-minute version it was short-listed for Soho Theatre’s Tony Craze Award in 2020 and makes a welcome return in this production at Soho. Now in an 80-minute version with playwright Naomi Denny taking on the main role of Sienna. Nothing like putting your head on the block, however she succeeds masterfully delivering an extremely touching and thought-provoking performance.

Sienna is struggling with grief and needs to move on from the death of her sister Emily. After twelve months she is still seeing her dead sister everywhere she goes. Having full on active conversations that are driven by a fear of time making her forget the details of her sibling’s life. LJ Johnson plays that sister, and their onstage bantering and tender moments are incredibly real, which makes this such and enthralling watch.

What sets this aside from other plays on the same subject is the fact that much of Sienna’s life is truly positive. She has a career that she excels at and a loving and caring relationship with her boyfriend Sam played brilliantly by Dejon Mullings. His understated performance is so moving with what could have been simply a ‘nice’ character in less experienced hands. The scene when Sienna tries to explain to Sam about her ‘visions is both funny and one of the most emotionally driven moments, gauged to perfection. Johnson and Mullings also swap a few items of clothing to play a third absent sister and Sienna’s boss, with total clarity and clear characterisations. The pressure finally becomes too much for Sienna when it becomes clear her dad is disappearing with rapidly growing dementia, another example of a fading memory.

Director Lucy Jane Atkinson and the creative team have gone for a stripped back staging that allows the words to breathe and stand for themselves with little distraction, which is what this play requires. Music is used to push the theme of memories and give further connection to the two relationships she is struggling to maintain.

Denny has created a little gem here. Such a clever balance between humour and pathos. It is hard to believe that this is only her second play.


Photo credit: Alex Brenner