Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is said that somewhere between joy and despair lies happiness; perhaps acceptance would be better because happiness is surely attained when you have watched someone almost take themselves the absolute limit, perform something astonishing and see them smile at the end, that surely is the meaning of happiness; the moment in which you have seen someone achieve something great and powerful.

I’m Happy Here (Honest) is a semi-autographical piece by Austin Mitchel Hewitt and it something that audiences should see for the extraordinary feat of sheer will of placing certain memories, of acting part of the most darkest and happiest moments in a life and trusting people to understand, for that alone Austin should be congratulated. There is though more to the hour that just placing your life before the crowds, there is the absolute work ethic that comes through from start to finish, the pure conviction which carries across the whole hour and the utter absorbing moment in which the audience hear the fantastic tune in relation to his choir teacher. The whole action cannot be enthused over enough.

What makes the crowd think though is the difference between light and shade, the moment between bliss and desolation, misery and delight in which life just sees you for what you are, the moment of contentment, the second in which when everything else has given way and in which you too are ready to let go, to let the grip of what makes you unhappy fly away like a thrown puppet in anger.

Watching the hour unfold, the manic cycle of repressed feelings and joyful remembrances is heightened by the great puppet work that Austin employs, to carry the narrative of the young boy who sang, who talked to his toys, wore his mother’s dress for a laugh at the Choir and whom comforted his dying mother was exceptional. It is hard enough to make audiences believe in the use of puppets but do so as a mask of guilt, rage, the smile and the realisation was just wonderful.

An enjoyable piece by a man well versed in the workings of a theatre.

Ian D. Hall