British trans rom-com ‘Happy Meal’ prepares to head to Bunbury, Perth and Geraldton as part of Perth Festival

When people think about how a romantic comedy usually starts, there are many preconceptions that exist. The main protagonist, often a man, finds themselves yearning for love before a bump-in of some description starts an completely unforeseen turn in events. It is far from the opening scene of ‘Happy Meal’, which raises the curtain with two Club Penguins having a ski fight. The show, which only made its debut at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, turns the genre on its head in more ways than one. Both the main characters are transgender, it is set in the online world rather than the physical one, and it focus on the characters finding their identities while finding romance. It is the brainchild of British playwright Tabby Lamb, who admits the show does skewer the format a bit. “Our rom-com ends where most rom-coms start,” they said. “We end at the meet cue, so we’re all of the build-up.” Set around 20 years ago in the age of dial-up internet, MSM chatrooms and MySpace, the show follows the story of trans-fem character Bette and trans-masc character Alec over a decade as they explore their identities and grow closer. “Bette is from a small town, she’s very shy and trying to figure out who she is, and she uses the internet to try all these various, different personas from gamer girl to full music kid,” Lamb said. “Alec is working class but slightly more ahead in his gender journey than Bette and he doesn’t quite so lean on the internet as a crux so much as Bette does. “He’s a musician, he’s really quite popular and has quite a lot of friends in the real world, and their journey is seeing how they make their worlds collide when they are hundreds of miles away from each other.” To find inspiration for the show, Lamb looked back at their formative years, growing up as what they describe as the first generation to have easily accessible internet in their homes. Growing up in a small village of around 400 people, Lamb said although the community was accepting, they did not meet any other queer people there. “The internet was really where I spent a lot of my time and where I made a lot of my friends,” they said. “I think that’s common for a lot of queer people.” Inspiration was also found in the juxtaposition Lamb wanted to create with their first show ‘Since U Been Gone’, which made its debut in 2019. “(It) had been about my two best friends’ deaths and it was very bleak, and I wanted to write something fun that would be exciting and different,” Lamb said. “I also wrote this play in lockdown and essentially that’s what took me back to being a kid, living in this small village, not being able to get out - I guess it is a lockdown show without being about lockdown.” The show won a Fringe First Award for its debut performance at the world-renowned festival, before touring the UK in September. It will make its Australian debut later this month in Sydney, before spending most of late January and early February in WA as part of the Perth Festival and its regional tour program. Local audiences will get the chance to see the show before it makes its debut in Lamb’s adopted home of London in late February. Lamb said it was the first time one of their shows was being performed internationally and described it as a “dream come true”. “It’s so exciting, it literally just blows my mind,” they said. The show is not only breaking conventions in its script, but also on and off stage. Happy Meal’s production team is majority trans, including the cast, director, sound and lighting designers. Sam Crerar will continue in their role as Alec in the production, while Tommi Bryson will make her debut as Bette on the Australian tour. “I’m working with insanely talented people and I feel very lucky,” Lamb said. Growing up isolated from other LGBTQIA+ people, Lamb described the importance of shows such as ‘Happy Meal’ going to towns including Bunbury and Geraldton which may not be heavily exposed to performances involving queer storylines. “I make work for trans audiences, I don’t make work for cis audiences, but trans people exist everywhere, trans people live in rural areas, so making sure that those people still have access to our stories is super-important,” they said. “In big cities, you’re going to be exposed to a lot more queer people, a lot more queerness, you’re going to know other trans people or at least see them around, whereas small townspeople can feel a bit more invisible. “Even removing all of the trans stuff and thinking of it as a show, everyone deserves good live theatre - you shouldn’t have to go a massive city and spend loads of money.” As for what they hope audiences get out of the show, Lamb is simple. “It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, you will leave hopefully just a little bit brighter.” The show plays at Geraldton’s Queens Park Theatre on January 31, The Bunbury Regional Entertainment Centre on February 3-4, and The Rechabite in Northbridge on February 9-11.