Happily Ever After: The kids’ play turning stereotypes on their heads

Happily Ever After

Samuel Sims meets the company responsible for one of the first ever kids’ plays to address LGBT issues


Action Transport Theatre is on a mission. The Cheshire based theatre company don’t just believe children are the future, they know they are the here and now. So much so that they place young people at the heart of all their work.

Doesn’t sound like your bag? Well, the company’s work fortunately doesn’t just bring the Teletubbies to the stage (or the vaguely terrifying In The Night Garden), but rather their shows are thought-provoking, inspiring and progressive.

Samuel Sims and Action Transport Theatre’s Artistic Director, Nina Hajiyianni had a natter about their new production, Happily Ever After which is in collaboration with The Proud Trust. The story turns the generic fairytale story on its head, by having two madly in love princes. About bloody time!


Hi Nina! Action Transport Theatre has dealt with issues like disability and now gay relationships in Happily Ever After. How did the company come about?

The company has actually been in existence for over 30 years and evolved over that time. It started off as a community company back in the 80s, and went onto become a new writing company. Then under my direction, we’ve been developing more visual storytelling. We’re focussed on dealing with issues surrounding representation and diversity with relation to children and how the theatre we make tells the stories from young people that aren’t always heard.

Where did the idea for Happily Ever After come from? Apparently you were inspired by King and King (Dutch children’s book by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland)? Did you read that yourself?

I was made aware of it by a friend and colleague in Mexico who was making her own production some years ago. I became very interested in the premise of it. It’s such a simple, simple idea and I love the idea of subverting what is a normal fairytale with the prince and princess living happily ever after. I then read the book and was interested in it being non-text, because the images in fairytales are so strong that they help you read everything.

What sort of reaction has Happily Ever After already had during the tour?

The reaction has largely been really positive. It’s a funny, visual, engaging bit of physical theatre so mostly that’s what people take away. I’ve also been in the audience where parents are proud to show the children they’re with, a play that is about acceptance and the promoting of diversity.

Anything negative?

There have been some challenges. We get the odd comment by an audience member asking things like “do you think you should have been clearer about the content because some people won’t want to watch this kind of show”, which is code for them not being happy about the content.

Wow.

We just feel strongly about making work that reflects the world children are in. Some will have gay family members or identify themselves as being gay now or in the future, and there’s an absence of bold theatre work that has positive gay representation. We’re trying to address that balance.

Does the show essentially teach kids that gay people can live happily ever after? There’s still this assumption that the idea of ‘family’ primarily belongs to heterosexuals…

Yes it does exactly that. The premise is that the prince needs to grow up and be king and he finds his match – they fall in love, get married and become a family, so it’s very much about traditional values. People can fall in love and make families with whomever.

Hell yes, and it’s important to represent real lives.

Yes! Because when else do these kids get represented? The only stuff I’ve come across is teen ‘angsty’ and yeah, there is a lot of hard stuff to go through but with Happily Ever After. There’s an absence of conflict and it’s seen as completely normal.

That’s so great. If you watch a film or TV programme, for example and there are gay or trans characters, it mostly always ends badly for them!

Yes!

It’s so unrealistic but Happily Ever After is showing ‘normal’ lives and surprise, surprise, ‘normal people!   

Well, in the future we hopefully won’t have to do that!

Finally, why do you think there’s a lack of real gay representation in theatre?

It’s so interesting because the arts are the one industry where gays are everywhere! Strange considering how many LGBT people work in that sector, but I think it’s because we’re governed by dominant ideas about what appeals to the majority and what makes money.

Could there be a solution? You’d think with theatre especially there’d be more experimentation.

The experimental stuff is the most interesting and boundary pushing, but you also want work like this to be in the mainstream where most people see and experience it.

Happily Ever After is currently touring the UK, with shows to coming up in Salford, Bath and London’s Greenwich theatre.

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