Naomi Denny’s play All The Happy Things arrives at Soho Theatre Dean Street from next week, a dark comedy about the power of sisterhood and grief, told through a Global Majority lens. Naomi first wrote the piece while working as a member of the Front of House team at the same venue, and she hopes that audiences will leave the show wanting to call their siblings; to laugh, to cry, and to be moved.

We caught up with Naomi ahead of the show’s first performance to talk about the show’s main characters Sienna and Emily, sisterhood, grief, coping mechanisms, Global Majority voices on stage and more. Join us for a pixelated pint.

You can catch All The Happy Things at Soho Theatre Upstairs – Dean Street from April 8th until April 26th at 6.45pm, with 3pm matinee performances on Saturdays (80 mins). The show will also transfer to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe later this year. You can book tickets for the Soho performance at the Venue’s Online Box Office here.

All The Happy Things will have a BLACK OUT night on Wednesday 16th April at 6:45pm (80 mins). Information and tickets are available on the Venue’s Online Box Office.

Jake: Hi Naomi! All The Happy Things is described as a dark comedy about the power of sisterhood and grief. Tell us about what inspired the piece and how you found both the humour and power in the story.

Naomi: I wrote this show in 2020 when I was at home in lockdown, living at home with my sister for the first time in around 10 years. So I’d love to say she has nothing to do with it, but it is undeniably inspired by our relationship – we don’t always get on, but we’re also a great team (when we want to be) and I would 100% walk through fire for her. I’d just probably grumble whilst doing it and then hold it over her for the rest of time. With this show, I wanted to examine the relationship between siblings and how it is unique and universal at the same time, and how it’s also probably one of the only relationships in our lives that we sort of expect to endure no matter what – and we don’t ever expect to say goodbye to it.

I love writing stories about difficult topics from a place of light. And there is so much light to be found in the relationship between Emily & Sienna, so finding the humour was surprisingly easy. I don’t want people to come to this show after losing a sibling and have to re-live their trauma again, that would be awful. Don’t get me wrong, it is definitely heart wrenching at times, but there are so many moments of light and laughter – because that’s also life. Experiences are not all one colour and life comes in a myriad of moments, even in the darkest times.

Jake: Tell us about Sienna and Emily, their stories, and about the blurry line between happiness and delusion.

Naomi: Emily and Sienna have a complex relationship. They are sisters, are complete opposites, and constantly butt heads. At the same time, they love each other dearly and fiercely protect each other. Sienna is the younger of the two – she is organised, reliable, and likes things done a certain way. Emily, the older sister, is messy, spontaneous, and slightly chaotic. Emily has passed away a year prior, and Sienna’s way of coping is to pretend it didn’t happen, still having full blown conversations with her sister.

The difficulty Sienna faces is that at first, this is a good coping mechanism for her – they laugh, they bicker, she keeps her relationship with her sister and she doesn’t have to face the world without Emily. But, as you say, there is a very blurry line between happiness and delusion, and eventually Sienna is forced to confront the reality of the world around her, whether she wants to or not.

Jake: The show manifests itself through a Global Majority lens – tell us about what that means to you and what you’re hoping the audience will take from the  whole experience.

Naomi: It was important to me that this story centred around characters who were Global Majority without focusing on the trauma of race. Often it feels like Black people are only allowed to tell stories centring racial trauma, and while of course these stories are needed and important, we should also be allowed to step out of this box. As a writer my aim is to write human, relatable stories that centre Global Majority voices. So yes, this story comes from a Global Majority lens speaking from the characters’ life experiences, but grief is also a shared human experience, and everyone can relate to it.

I hope that audiences who are not Global Majority will experience the multidimensional prism of Global Majority voices, and I hope that those who are Global Majority leave feeling seen and that their experience matters. I hope everyone who has a sibling sees some part of that relationship in Emily & Sienna, and that people leave wanting to connect with their siblings. And most importantly, I hope audiences take away from this show that grief manifests in a lot of ways and there is no one way to deal with it – and all we can do is help those who are dealing with it.

Jake: Given the themes of Binge Fringe, if your show was a beverage of any kind (alcoholic, non-alcoholic – be as creative as you like!), what would it be and why?

Naomi: Excellent question! Emily’s favourite drink is Tesco Value vodka combined with Tesco value squash, and Sienna’s is a dry Riesling – so somewhere in the middle perhaps? I want to say Wray & Nephew and coke? It’s more towards Emily’s end, but that’s also classic for their relationship. So yeah, let’s go with that!

You can catch All The Happy Things at Soho Theatre Upstairs – Dean Street from April 8th until April 26th at 6.45pm, with 3pm matinee performances on Saturdays (80 mins). You can book tickets for the Soho performance at the Venue’s Online Box Office here.

All The Happy Things will have a BLACK OUT night on Wednesday 16th April at 6:45pm (80 mins). Information and tickets are available on the Venue’s Online Box Office.