Happy Meals, Happy Kids, Q the locals and Sunny Productions, The Q, 7-9 March 2024

 There's been an interesting run of Youth Theatre recently, with a lot of fairly dark material dealing with teenagers facing not-too-distant future dystopias in plays like "This Changes Everything" (2022) and "The Trials" (2023). "Happy Meals, Happy Kids" continues that trend with a group of 6 teenagers in the remains of a McDonalds preparing for one climactic event as the fate of the world hovers over them. But there's also a spirit of life and of resistance from these characters as they reflect on how they'd forced themselves to grow up too quickly (academically, socially, professionally) and are now regretting how fast their youth is passing - while we see that they still have occasional moments of youth hovering within them, whether it's desire to reconnect to family, to just dance and enjoy themselves, to experience anything that isn't the pervasive doom that hovers over them. It would be easy for a play like this to be essentially nihilistic, but Jade Breen's writing and their co-direction with Ella Buckley means the play is ever-more effective for letting a varied sense of humanity through the dark situation - a humanity we can embrace even as we know, intellectually, that it's probably going to be hurt by outside forces. 

Katie Bisset plays the teenager who attempts to organise the rest with a strong sense of purpose, even as it becomes more apparent that her gestures may be futile. Caitlin Bisset, Joshua James and Phoebe Silberman play the three more disruptive members of the group, trying to divert themselves from the realities of what's coming, with jokes, games and reminiscences. Wajanoah Mascot Donohoe plays Bisson's closest partner, a supportive figure with his own neuroses and nerves. And Zoe Ross plays the isolated one, melting down in the bathroom as the pressures overwhelm her. 

Ros Hall's set and Sen McNamara's costumes evoke the chaotic times, from the trashed details of the set to the small tears and scrapes of the costumes.

Breen is a skilled writing talent, writing passionately and with care, creating a varied cast of characters in a brutal situation and taking them to a grim but inevitable conclusion. It's a confident and powerful piece and I can't wait to see how their talents are explored further.