What is happiness for you? Or perhaps a better question is always this: what is happiness for Charlie Brown?
“Charlie Brown says happiness is a happy pencil, because the girl he loves has nibbled on a pencil,” says Fran Gebhard, director of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. “Happiness is sharing sandwiches and a friend.”
Charlie Brown is one of the most famous cartoon characters in North America. Charlie has continual bad luck and is often taken advantage of by his peers. He’s the great American un-success story in that he fails in almost everything he does; however, Charlie always keeps trying. He cannot fly a kite or kick a football; he is a failure in many ways. But he always wakes up every day, certain that this is going to be a better day.
“If I want people to get anything from this play, I want them to get the idea that there is always hope,” says Gebhard. “They can always have a better day.”
Given that the play is based on the cartoon, there are some childish but eye-catching and ingenious props on the stage, including two wooden arches that represent where the characters would’ve come from in a newspaper strip, for example.
“We have boxes painted to look like cardboard boxes that actors move around to be different props in the different scenes,” Gebhard says. “But it’s really looking at a cartoon that has come alive. We have exaggerated wigs, colourfulness of the costumes, and so on. This’ll really be impactful and joyful for the students to see.”
For students who are easily stressed out and are lacking happiness due to being swamped with their heavy school workload, Gebhard says this play can help them feel free from responsibilities and work.
“Students will be seeing these characters singing, dancing and celebrating life. I think that will resound with them because students are happy and hopeful people,” says Gebhard. “This is the play; come in to the theatre and look at colourful costumes and see the cartoon characters come alive and celebrate life.”
The audience will return to the innocence of childhood by having an opportunity to realize what happiness is a the different characters tell the audience what happiness is for them.
“I would like the audience to remember that they can find happiness in the minutiae of daily life: in the very small things, in the smile of a child, in the beautiful spring day, and when the rain breaks and the sun shines through,” says Gebhard. “These are moments of happiness. We have to live with gratitude for what we have and not always be looking for the grass that’s greener on the other side.”
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
March 14 to 23
UVic Phoenix Theatre
finearts.uvic.ca/theatre/phoenix