All the Happy Things by Naomi Denny - ★★★★☆
All the Happy Things, directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson, opens and closes in a graveyard – yet it’s far from just a tale of loss. The play blends moments of unexpected humour, warmth, and tenderness, offering a familiar yet heartfelt exploration of grief. As the story unfolds, the audience is drawn between lightness and sorrow, with moments of joy and even the occasional choreographed ‘No Scrubs’ dance break, reminding us that grief, like life, is never linear.
The play centres on sisters Sienna (Naomi Denny) and Emily (LJ Johnson) – two contrasting personalities that complement each other effortlessly. After Emily’s sudden death, her presence lingers in ways that feel tangible and inescapable. Though Sienna grows irritated at times, she clings to Emily for comfort, even as these ghostly interruptions slowly entangle her daily life.
Denny and Johnson’s natural chemistry keeps the story grounded and easy to follow, even when Emily interrupts Sienna’s interactions with her almost-too-perfect boyfriend Sam (Dejon Mullings). While the dialogue leans on familiar tropes and doesn’t offer particularly new insights, it’s elevated by the sisters’ heartfelt performances – especially Johnson, whose sharp transitions between scenes, characters, and emotional states keep the play dynamic and engaging. All three actors bring strong stage presence, making the 80 minutes fly by.
The play unfolds through fragmented glimpses of Sienna trying to hold it together – juggling a job where her boss upholds a toxic cycle of promoting incompetent white men over qualified women, navigating the delicate balance of grieving with her overtly supportive boyfriend Sam, and caring for her father as he slowly fades into Alzheimer’s. Drained by these challenges, Sienna nonetheless clings to these parts of her life, using them as distractions in an attempt to outrun her grief and reclaim a sense of self and identity: “At work, I’m not just the girl with a dead sister.”
But then – with a sharp breath intake and a single step forward – we’re swept into a fleeting, weightless state: a moment of carefree nostalgia, lightness, and hair-twirling abandon. Dark, dream-like purple lighting sets the tone, paired with a warm melody and a looping exchange of voicemails between the two sisters, grounding us in their shared past as they move in sync. Though it takes a few attempts to fully settle into this transient state, it eventually becomes a beautifully crafted break between scenes, enhanced by the direction of movement, sound, and lighting design, offering a fleeting sense of hope and escape in her everyday life.
A sudden car honk then disrupts the moment, throwing us into a new scene and pushing the story forward. At times, the shift from high-intensity moments to quiet stillness within a single scene feels jarring and almost unorchestrated, but in its rawness, it captures the chaotic, non-linear nature of grief. Grief, unpredictable and transient, reflects the rhythm of the show – sharp turns, sudden drops, and moments of stillness. One minute, we’re in a tender embrace, swaying to a slow dance between Sienna and Sam; the next, Sienna screams at him to leave before the song reaches its next verse.
By the end, the play establishes itself as a tender, relatable story that resonates on a universal level. It brushes past compelling themes that could have added more depth – such as Sienna breaking free from complacency at work, giving Sam more nuance in his responses to difficult moments with Sienna, or exploring Sienna’s true feelings about potentially losing her father while already grieving her sister. We understand however that perhaps those are stories for another time. For now, we hold onto all the happy things.
By Minji Suh
★★★★☆
All The Happy Things by Naomi Denny is on at the Soho Theatre until 26 April.