FAQ

"Happy Family" was a very obscure production written by Maisie Mosco, who would go on to become a somewhat well known author in the 1970s-1980s for her "Almonds and Raisins" trilogy, a series of books about a Russian-Jewish family who emigrates to New England in the early 1900s to flee pogroms in Eastern Europe. The play seems to take some influence from the novel "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" by Shirley Jackson.

Mosco was still an unknown in the late 60s when Brian Comport saw a production of "Happy Family" while attempting to begin work on an as-of-yet unnamed screenplay that had been commissioned by Freddie Francis. Although most well known as a cinematographer (he won an Academy Award in 1960 for "Sons and Lovers"), Francis had begun directing low-budget horror films in the 1960s, and wanted to shoot a movie at Oakley Court, well known in British film circles for its use in a variety of Hammer Horror films, some of which Francis had worked on. Francis had asked Comport to write him a story built around Oakley Court, to take full advantage of the house's interiors, which were rarely featured in motion pictures, as directors instead opted to only shoot exteriors there and film interiors elsewhere. Upon seeing the play, Comport felt that it was a good jumping-off point for the kind of story that could take place in a house like Oakley Court. However, very little of the actual play was transferred to the screen; by his own admission, Comport did not actually like the play, despite finding it inspirational for his own story (which he would also novelize).

The characters in the play are significantly different than their screen counterparts. Mumsy spends the entirety of the play in a bathrobe; Nanny is an elderly woman in her seventies. Sonny and Girly are mods who chain smoke and speak in unison when they are onstage together. Their "guests" all come willingly to the house, where they are dressed in paper crowns and made to do homework.

The beginning of the play finds Sonny and Girly bringing home "Chick" (who was split into the characters of Soldier and New Friend for the movie). The first act of the play concerns Chick becoming accustomed to life with the Happy Family; he eventually learns that the family's fixation on "friends" comes from Mumsy being forced to have a hysterectomy by her husband, who went on to abandon the family. It further emerges that Sonny is both incestuous and bisexual, and in addition to carrying on an affair with Girly, wants to engage in one with Chick. Chick manipulates a jealous Girly into shoving Sonny off of a staircase, which Girly maintains is the family's preferred method for disposing of unwanted friends.

The second act concerns Chick having taken Sonny's place as the primary man in the household, and beginning to adopt Sonny's personality traits. In order to round out the family, he and Girly bring home "Doll," a young hippie woman. Girly develops a lesbian attraction to Doll, and the pair begin to ignore an increasingly jealous Chick. The strife in the family irritates an increasingly frustrated Mumsy, who ultimately breaks down and confesses to Nanny that she's been in love with her for years, and only wanted children because of societal expectations. After Nanny reciprocates her love, the pair kill Girly, Chick, and Doll by feeding them poisoned ice cream sundaes during a bedtime story. The play ends with Girly, Chick and Doll writhing around on the stage in their death throes as a cackling Mumsy and Nanny retrieve shovels and prepare to dig graves in the garden.