EDINBURGH 2026 Review: HAPPIEST I'VE EVER BEEN, Just The Tonic At The Caves
Runs until 30 August.
Fiona wakes up trapped… somewhere. Where is she? The figure who appears next to her can’t give her any answers—yet. In this limbo, Fiona needs to take a good look at her life before she can move on. Funny and relatably millennial, Eilidh Harrower (Fiona) and Holly Archibald (Skye, also the author alongside Katie Young) run us through an eye-opening conversation with our inner child. How do we define achievement? Is having a mortgage and working overtime really a sign of having it together? Is stability worth the loss of our individuality? Directed by Nadja Bonk, Happiest I’ve Ever Been analyses the illusion of success between butterfly clips and dance mats.
It’s an endearing mix of sweet darkness and bitter resentment, with a happy ending. Young and Archibald collaborate on a friendly, colloquial script that balances its tonal subtext exceptionally well. It's delivered by two actors who share a delightful chemistry, riffing off the fears and expectations of each other’s characters. The delicious push and pull of their polar opposite natures is the result of natural, lifelike writing. Finely tuned and perfectly paced, the piece verbalises the millennial strife without being ashamed of it. Most of all, it’s a show about staying true to yourself.
Repressed trauma takes centre stage, with Skye constantly dodging the topic while Fiona relentlessly tries to address it. Young and Archibald ease into it gradually, with Skye pulling back every time Fiona tries to broach the subject. In less than an hour, the play successfully manages to touch upon a variety of adult hardships with tenderness and care. It doesn’t need to over-explain itself, and it doesn’t try to provide a solution. Instead, it takes the opportunity to voice a struggle and does its best to present a compromise. It urges the audience to pay attention to their feelings and warns them against ignoring the signs of burnout.
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