(THIS IS NOT A) HAPPY ROOM Comes to the King's Head Theatre

Amanda Abbington and Rosie Day will reunite to lead the company for the world première of (This is not a) Happy Room at King’s Head Theatre, which Day has also written. Hannah Price directs this brand-new dark comedy, which opens on 31 March, with previews from 26 March and runs until 27 April. Full casting will be announced shortly.

 Amanda Abbington said today “I have admired Rosie’s writing since Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, so when she mentioned she was creating a brand-new play I had to read it. The script is hilarious and utterly gripping, I can’t wait to further explore the Henderson’s chaotic family dynamic and bring them to life on stage.”

 Rosie Day added “(This is not a) Happy Room is a very farcical dark comedy about the most dysfunctional of families, it’s going to be a riot to put on. I can’t wait to bring it to the King’s Head Theatre.” 

Meet the Hendersons, a happily dysfunctional family, reuniting for their dad’s third (or fourth?) wedding. Nobody expects the death of his bachelorhood to become an actual funeral… but it would be a waste of the buffet not to repurpose it, right?

Following the West-End run of her critically acclaimed Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon, and hailed as Saltburn meets Schitt’s Creek, Rosie Day’s new searingly sharp dark comedy premieres at the King's Head in March 2025.

Amanda Abbington plays Esther. Her theatre credits include When it Happens to You (Park Theatre),

The Unfriend (Criterion Theatre), The Son (Kiln Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre), The Little Princess (Royal Festival Hall), The God of Carnage, Abigail’s Party (Theatre Royal Bath), God Bless the Child (Royal Court Theatre) and Love Me Tonight (Hampstead Theatre). Her television credits include Desperate Measures, Wolfe, The Net, Sherlock, I Hate Suzie, Mr. Selfridge (as series regular Miss Mardle), Cuffs, The Queen and I, Unsaid Stories, Safe, Married Single Other and After You’ve Gone; and for film, The Lost King, Three Pints and a Rabbi, Decrypted, The Six Days of Sistine, Crooked House, Another Mother’s Son and Ghost.

Playwright Rosie Day also plays Elle. As a writer, her debut play Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon opened in the West End in Spring 2024 and is now being produced for television by BBC3 and Emma Thompson. Her theatre credits include When It Happens to You (Park Theatre), The Fellowship (Hampstead Theatre), Instructions for a Teenage Armageddon (Southwark Playhouse), Again, The Girl who Fell (Trafalgar Studios), Spur of the Moment (Royal Court Theatre), Velocity (Finborough Theatre), A Winter’s Tale, Playboy of the Western World and Summerfolk (National Theatre). Her television credits include Outlander, Living the Dream, Good Omens, Urban Myths, The Sandman and Prime Suspect 1973; and for film, All Roads Lead to Rome, Down a Dark Hall, The Seasoning House, Good Night and Butterfly Kisses.

Hannah Price directs. Her directing credits include The Girl Who Fell, Boa, Again (Trafalgar Studios), End of the Pier, The Dead Monkey (Park Theatre), Down and Out Live (Stone Nest, London/La Generale, Paris), Permanence (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto), Escape the Scaffold (Theatre503/ The Other Room), Run the Beast Down (Marlowe Theatre/Finborough Theatre), 1984 Live (Senate House), Rainbow Class (Bush Theatre/Assembly Rooms), TEST (Scala Theatre, Basel),  Cello/Fragile (Yard Theatre), Bud Take the Wheel, I Feel a Song Coming On (Shaw Theatre/Underbelly), That Moment (King‘s Head Theatre & UK tour).

For Theatre Uncut her credits include Refugee (Teater Grob, Copenhagen), In Opposition (Paines Plough Roundabout), Knowledge is Power: Knowledge is Change (Traverse & tour), Referendum Plays (Traverse), TU Istanbul: Power and Protest (Dot Tiyatro/Istanbul International Theatre Festival/Traverse), TU 2013: The Rise of the Right (Young Vic), The Cuts Plays (Southwark Playhouse/ Soho/Latitude/Traverse).

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