We Happy Few (play) We Happy Few (play) We Happy Few is a 2004 play by Imogen Stubbs. It follows a group of female actors touring Shakespeare plays round the United Kingdom during World War II . It is based on the real-life touring group, the Osiris Players. Its title quotes the St Crispin's Day Speech from "Henry V". Originally written and performed in 2003 at Malvern Theatres, it was further developed into the play which opened in London in 2004. This London premiere was directed by Stubbs' husband Trevor Nunn at the Gielgud Theatre and starred Juliet Stevenson and Patsy Palmer. It opened
We Happy Few to as "Wellies"—wear white "Happy Face" masks as a sign of their continued jollity. Joy is freely dispensed in pill form and is also laced into the city's water supply. To encourage the drug's consumption, the media is tightly controlled and centers on "Uncle" Jack Worthing, a friendly MC whose voice and image widely broadcasts government propaganda over the city's televisions and radios. Unfortunately, some Wellies developed an immunity to Joy—partly as a result of ingesting bad batches of the drug—and subsequently became depressed or insane from remembering the Very Bad Thing; these people were then driven out of Wellington