All The Happy Things is the debut full-length play by playwright and actor Naomi Denny. A dark comedy about the powerful bond shared by siblings and the complexities of grief, told through a Global Majority lens, All the Happy Things was written as part of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab and shortlisted for the Tony Craze Award.
The cast features Denny alongside LJ Johnson (He Said She Said, Kiln Theatre) and Dejon Mullings (Ted Lasso series regular) and with direction from Lucy Jane Atkinson.
We caught up with Denny to find out what it’s like to be opening the play at Soho Theatre.
Q&A with Naomi Denny
What’s it like to be opening All The Happy Things at Soho Theatre – the place you were working when you started writing it?
It’s amazing. It feels like a very full circle moment. I worked there for 5 years as an usher, and in my time there I saw some amazing work and met some really cool artists. I remember sitting outside the upstairs venue during shows and writing this play, and I wrote it hoping that one day it would be on in that theatre – so it’s incredibly surreal. I always say that I’m funnier because I worked there for so long. I learned so much about theatre working there, and even now I walk in and I always see someone I know – it feels like coming home.
What can you tell us about the original inspiration for the play?
I wanted to look at the relationship between siblings because I genuinely find it fascinating. It’s wild – you’re introduced to a person and told they are going to be with you for the rest of your life, even if you’re complete opposites. With siblings, you can be as thick as thieves, or at each other’s throats, it doesn’t matter – you still love them and would go to the ends of the earth for them. You have a shared language and shorthand, traditions, memories – and I wanted to look at what happens when that is taken away. I have an older sister, and I’d be lying if I said our relationship hasn’t inspired the relationship between Emily & Sienna in this show. However, I also knew that even though I was writing a play about loss, I didn’t want it to be tragic and to make people sad – I always want to uplift and make people laugh with my work, especially if it’s about a sad topic. I like looking at the silly moments of life, the little moments that make us all human – so that’s where I started with the relationship between Emily & Sienna.
How much has the play changed through its development?
Oh god, SO much. I always save every draft I do and I haven’t looked back at the first draft of this in ages, but there have been so many iterations of this show and so many directions it has gone in, I’m talking at least 50 drafts. At first, the character of Emily was more ambiguous as to whether she was alive or not, and then I realised I didn’t want the mystery or reveal of that to overshadow what the show was about at its core, and that was the relationship between the two sisters. So, I decided to look at it from a different angle – what if we always knew that Emily was dead? How does that change things? And I liked it a lot more.
It’s been so wonderful working with dramaturgs on this. I’ve had the privilege of working with Antony Lau (Soho Writers Lab), Sam Pout (Omnibus Theatre), and now the wonderful Somebody Jones. Working with a dramaturg is such a gift for a writer – my writing is always better for it.
Was performing in the play always something that you hand in mind when writing it?
I never really planned on being in it, which now feels weird to say given that I’ve done every iteration. I’ve never written anything intending to play a character in it – I have played characters I’ve written, but I very much have a writer’s hat on when I’m writing – I don’t consider who is playing the character, just that the character is someone who will be fun and interesting to play. I wrote the play, and then one day when I was reading it back I thought “This is a great show, I really want to do this.”. I originally played Emily when we did a short run of the show at Theatre503 in 2022, but I realised while I was doing it that Emily was so similar to me and I wanted to sink my teeth a character who was different to me. And so, when we did a WIP sharing of the show at Omnibus in 2024, I played Sienna.
I am first and foremost an actor – I think that’s why I write characters that actors enjoy playing – and I’m absolutely loving finding this character and embodying her every night. At first I was worried that people would think a certain way about me taking on the role, that they wouldn’t take me or the show seriously, but then I spoke to my sister, and she said “Well Phoebe Waller-Bridge does it and no one thinks that, so I feel like you should just do it.” So I did.
Is there anything you hope audiences take away from the production?
I hope audiences take away that grief does not come in a single experience and that there is no ‘right’ way of doing it, and also that Black stories can be stories that do not solely centre race. And, most importantly, I hope audiences have fun and are moved, and I hope they leave feeling like they want to call their siblings, families, loved ones – I hope they leave wanting that.
