Happy Home Road

In 2009 the Christchurch Arts Festival commissioned Mike Friend and The Loons to create a new piece of theatre. It premiered 6 August 2009 and played to large audiences over four performances at the James Hay Theatre, Christchurch.

“Have you ever considered the remote possibility that life is a circus?”

Turner has a dream. Gazing out from the wasteland of Happy Home Road he sees the ethereal Lady in Red. He resolves to build a shed.

Circus, dance, music and drama collide. The result is
 a Pinteresque world that combines the exuberance
of madness with the exhaustion of reality. Visually breathtaking, it melds desolate romanticism with zany comic zest. Happy Home Road is circus for a new century.

An insightful look into the mind of a man who has experienced lost love, and his spiral into an unstable reality. Humorous and serious, this work is also beautiful.

“At times you are so fascinated by the dance, or so intent on watching the performers moving high in the air that you lose track of the dialogue itself.”
The Press

“Loons absurdly, captivating, mesmerising, even magical”

The Press