Joyous, queer comic drama Get Happy written and performed by Joseph Aldous comes to the Omnibus Theatre this July.
“I can have what you have.
I can do it better.
I’m going to show you I can Get Happy.”
Adam’s hot gay summer is in full swing, and things could be a lot worse. Sure, he may be about to turn 30 without a stable job, a boyfriend, or any real clue about what he’s doing with his life — but he’s having a good time. Life is a party, and Adam’s making the most of it. Everything is fine. Juuuust fine.
But when Adam’s best friend and housemate gets engaged to his boyfriend and moves out, it’s time to make a change. All of his queer friends are settled. Secure. And… Happy. When exactly did that happen?
Well, Adam can be happy too. Really, really, really, very very 100% super happy.
With his sentient Alexa in tow, a playlist of queer bangers, and a three-point plan to sort his life out, Adam can’t fail. The clock’s ticking. But he’s going to
get there. Whatever it takes. Cue up Ke$ha and get your glitter on, girls. We’re going out, and we’re getting happy. Clearly, absolutely nothing will go wrong.
Written with the Soho Writers’ Lab and the winner of the Carlo Annoni International Playwriting Award, Get Happy is a one-man explosion of a show about queer happiness which asks: how do we Get Happy when we don’t actually know what it looks like?
Joseph is an award-winning writer and actor. He trained at LAMDA, the Soho Writers’ Lab, and the Soho Writers’ Alumni Group.
Joseph’s debut play, Get Happy, won the Carlo Annoni International LGBTQ+ Playwriting Prize and was longlisted for the Theatre503 Playwriting Prize. Supported by Jerwood Arts, Get Happy debuted at the Pleasance Theatre Islington in 2023. His second play, The Wedding, was commissioned by the Oxford School of Drama.
His further stage work has been performed at the Soho Theatre, Theatre503, VAULT, the Customs House, and the LAMDA MishMash Festival. BURYING GRANDAD, Joseph’s first TV pilot, was long-listed for the BBC Writersroom, and in 2024 he completed the BFI Network South East Script Lab. As an actor, credits include Moonfleece (Pleasance Theatre), Kiki (Arcola Theatre), Helena and Hermia: Untucked (Bunker Theatre), Tala (Missdemeanour Films), and An Advancement of Learning (Poet In The City).
Omnibus Theatre is a multi-award-winning independent theatre in Clapham, South London. Finalist in the Fringe Theatre of the Year 2020 and 2023 The Stage Awards, Off-West End Award winner 2018 and 2020, and recipient of the Peter Brook/Royal Court Theatre Support Award in 2016. The heart of the organisation’s ambitious programme lies in classics re-imagined, modern revivals and new writing.
Omnibus Theatre also provides a platform for LGBTQ+ work and aims to give voice to the underrepresented and challenge perceptions. Since opening in 2013 notable in-house productions include Woyzeck (2013), Macbeth (2014), Colour (2015), Mule (2016), Spring Offensive (2017), Zeraffa Giraffa (2017), Queens of Sheba (2019), The Little Prince (2019), RICE! (2021), The Human Connection (2021), The Girl Who Was Very Good At Lying (2021), FIJI (2022), SAD (2022) and DRUM (2022), COMPOSITOR E (2023), ICE AT THE END OF THE WORLD (2024).
