A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE

Happy Family

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 2m

Giles Cooper

".....Shrewd, strange, funny, compelling and ultimately horrifying play" Daily Mail

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 2m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary
The play concerns the Solstice damily, a brother and two sisters, and what happens when the elder sister, Susan, introduces her financé, who becomes attracted to the younger sister, Deborah. But the three members of the Solstice family are still, emotionally, as vulnerable and innocent as they were as children: Mark, the authoritative brother, is terrified of the dark; Deborah is totally unaware of the facts of life; Susan is the assertive older sister; and holding the three together is an elaborate system of nursery rules and regulations, a secret language, and their joint failure to grow up. The introduction of a stranger into their midst is the catalyst that exposes thier weaknesses to us all, but will it be enough to break the family free from their childhood chains? The mixtureof childishness and maturity revealed by this complex play pinpoints the repression inherant in much adult behavoiur.

Deborah Solstice (35 minimum)

Mark, her brother (40s)

Susan, her sister (late 30s)

Gregory Butler(40s)

  • Time Period 1960s
  • Setting Deborah's cottage in Huntingdonshire in the spring of 1963
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Mild Adult Themes

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

Authors

Author

Giles Cooper

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