Omnibus Theatre’s 96 Festival has proven to be rich territory for coming across new LGBTQ+ writing, and its headline one-man show ‘Get Happy’ is very much worth discovering. After a previous stint at The Plesance Theatre, this intriguing debut from Joseph Aldous, sees the writer-actor play Adam, who is fully embedded in a hot gay summer of partying, sex and directionless, but enjoyable, hedonism. That’s until his best friend and housemate, Ryan, gets engaged to his boyfriend and quips to his friend: “You will find it too. You will be happy!”
Suddenly, about to turn 30, Adam starts to reassess his life without a stable job, a boyfriend, or any real clue about what he’s doing. Can he be just as seemingly happy, settled and secure as Ryan? Written with the Soho Writers’ Lab and packed with a playlist of queer bangers, this debut show is an exploration of queer happiness that navigates the thorny question: how do we ‘get happy’ when we don’t actually know what it looks like?
