Happy Place

By Pamela Mala Sinha

Happy Place explores the lives of seven women aged 23 to 60 who are residents of an in-patient care facility: a microcosm for the world outside its walls. What is it to live inside the suffering of these women… addressing the idea that we are not so different from each other, though our circumstances may be? Each woman must try to find a way to fit into a world that can’t respond to or redress a pain that is unseeable. But they are also the ones who can teach one another how to live with what happened to them as no one else ever could. Even if they can't always do it for themselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scirocco Drama
• Release date: Jul 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9781990737275

Pamela Mala Sinha

Pamela Mala Sinha is an award-winning Canadian actress and writer, working internationally in theatre, television, and film. Pamela is the recipient of Canada’s prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Lead Actress for her solo debut play, CRASH. Published by Scirocco Drama, CRASH was also included in Bloomsbury UK’s Audition Speeches anthology and in Love, Loss, and Longing (Playwrights Canada Press). Her second play, Happy Place, premiered in Toronto at Soulpepper, followed by runs at Vancouver’s Touchstone Theatre and Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange. CRASH debuted in the US at the Signature Theatre, NY, as part of Soulpepper’s tour in 2016. As one of few artists selected nationally to receive a prestigious Project Imagination commission from Soulpepper, Pamela began research for New, which she completed as playwright-in-residence at Necessary Angel Theatre. New had its world premiere (after two years of COVID delays) in November 2022 at Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, followed by a Toronto run at Canadian Stage. Pamela’s film adaptation of Happy Place was produced by Jennifer Kawaja (Sienna Films/Sphere Media) and directed by Helen Shaver. Pamela completed development with the CBC and Sienna Films on her series Nirvana and production wrapped in 2022 on the film version of CRASH (produced by Necessary Angel and Riddle Films) starring Pamela. Pamela is partner to playwright and mathematician John Mighton and proud stepmother to Chloe.

Book preview

Cover: Happy Place by Pamela Mala Sinha, published under Scirocco Drama, by J. Gordon Shillingford, shows the loosely bound threads in black and blue colours hanging from a nail on the perforated panel.

HAPPY

PLACE

Pamela Mala Sinha

Happy Place

first published 2017 by

Scirocco Drama

An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

© 2017, Pamela Mala Sinha

Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

Cover design by Terry Gallagher/Doowah Design Inc.

Author photo by Lori Dorn

Production photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and

The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the author. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact

Ian Arnold

Catalyst TCM Inc.

#312 – 100 Broadview Ave.

Toronto, ON

Canada

M4M 3H3

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Sinha, Pamela Mala, author

Happy place / Pamela Mala Sinha.

A play.

ISBN 978-1-927922-13-2 (paperback)

I. Title.

PS8637.I633H36 2016C812'.6C2016-905183-8

J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

For

Damon DʼOliveira

and

Brian Scott

A black and white photograph of the author Pamela Mala Sinha. She is wearing an off-shoulder dress and her loose, dark tresses are over her right shoulder.

Pamela Mala Sinha

Pamela Mala Sinha is an award-winning Canadian actress and playwright. Selected theatre credits include Happy Place (Soulpepper), Nirbhaya (Assembly Theatre/UK, NY), and The Little Years (Stratford Production/Tarragon Theatre). Selected TV/Film: three seasons on ER (NBC), Huff (HBO), Traders, Live from Baghdad, Breakaway, and What We Have.

Pamela was the recipient of Canada’s prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Lead Actress for her solo debut play, Crash (Scirocco Drama), also included in Bloomsbury’s (UK) anthology Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors. Crash toured to New York with Soulpepper Theatre in July 2017, and will continue touring internationally through 2018. Pamela’s new commission with Soulpepper, New, is a play inspired by her parents’ immigration to Canada and their coming of age. Pamela is in development on the feature film adaptation of Happy Place with Sienna Films and director Helen Shaver, slated for production in early 2018.

Acknowledgements

I am deeply grateful to a number of individuals who have supported me during the development of this play: Iris Turcott (Factory Crosscurrents) and Bob White (Stratford Festival) for producing the first public reading; Guillermo Verdecchia for his dramaturgical insights; director Alan Dilworth for his alwaysinvaluable notes in rehearsal; and to those actresses whose brilliant work inspired me to write these parts: Catherine Fitch, Kristen Thomson, Liisa Repo-Martell and Maria Vacratsis.

I am indebted to Soulpepper Theatre Company; not only for premiering Happy Place, but for their continued belief in and support of my work.

Finally, to my family, immediate and extended…your love propels me in this life.

Production History

Happy Place had its world premiere at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre in September, 2015 with the following cast:

SAMIRA Oyin Oladejo

MILDRED Diane D’Aquila

CELINE Pamela Mala Sinha

NINA Liisa Repo-Martell

JOYCE Caroline Gillis

ROSEMARY Irene Poole

LOUISE Deborah Drakeford

Directed by Alan Dilworth

Set Design by Lorenzo Savoini

Lighting Design by Kimberly Purtell

Original Music and Sound Design by Debashis Sinha

Costume Design by Ken MacKenzie

Happy Place was presented by Touchstone Theatre in association with Ruby Slippers Theatre in October, 2017 at The Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver, with the following cast:

SAMIRA Adele Noronha

MILDRED Nicola Cavendish

CELINE Sereana Malani

NINA Laara Sadiq

JOYCE Diane Brown

ROSEMARY/KRISTA Colleen Wheeler

LOUISE Donna Yamamoto

Directed by Roy Surette

Set Design by Pam Johnson

Lighting Design by Adrian Muir

Costume Design by Christine Reimer

Original Music and Sound Design by Dorothy Dittrich

Photograph of Mildred, played by Diane DʼAquila, breaks down in front of Rosemary, played by Irene Poole. The two women are sitting on the floor, as they perform in the play.

Mildred (Diane DʼAquila) breaks down

in front of Rosemary (Irene Poole).

Photograph of three women, Joyce, played by Caroline Gillis; Rosemary, played by Irene Poole; and Celine, played by Pamela Mala Sinha, sitting on a sofa as they discuss among themselves.

Joyce (Caroline Gillis), Rosemary (Irene Poole)

and Celine (Pamela Mala Sinha) in the aftermath

of Mildredʼs breakdown.

Photograph of Mildred, played by Diane DʼAquila, holding the face of the tearful Samira, played by Oyin Oladejo. Both the women are standing as they converse.

Mildred says goodbye to Samira (Oyin Oladejo).

Photograph of the therapist Louise, played by Deborah Drakeford, placing a sonogram next to Nina, played by Liisa Repo-Martell. Both the women are sitting on the floor.

Nina (Liisa Repo-Martell) responds to the results

of her sonogram presented by her therapist,

Louise (Deborah Drakeford).

Production Notes

The action of the play takes place in the interior of an in-patient care facility and