Amanda Abbington’s new show is heavily indebted to Noël Coward’s Hay Fever.Coward’s early play follows the tribulations of the superficial Bliss family and at first it was rejected by producers because it lacked action or incident. The oddly titled show, (This is not a) Happy Room, opens on the eve of a family wedding. Disaster strikes when the groom dies in a car cash and the nuptials are hastily transformed into a funeral. (Don’t ask how the dead body was released for burial so quickly.)
Abbington plays Esther Henderson, a careless matriarch, who walked out on her children when they were small and left her firstborn, Laura, in charge of the parenting duties. Laura struggled to raise the youngsters properly and she now feels responsible for their wonky personalities. The youngest, Elle, aged 29, is an anorexic film star whose career is on the slide. Simon is a jobless, attention-seeking hypochondriac, aged 35, who wears sunglasses indoors and uses a walking stick to gain sympathy. Laura meanwhile is a hot-shot human rights lawyer who despises migrants and can’t stand her dull, clingy husband even though he worships her. ‘I say your name constantly when you’re not around,’ he simpers, ‘just so that there’ll be more of you in the world.’ He and Laura have a newborn baby, which Simon and Elle pointedly ignore because they want Laura’s attention all to themselves.
Everyone in this slow-burning play is a bothersome, superficial victim mired in the competitive atmosphere of their gruesome childhood. Their bitter, sneering dialogue suits their prickly personalities. And yet their shared affection is rather touching.
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