diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
index 192f6126..9670a566 100644
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -4,6 +4,10 @@
 
 The main focus of this release was modularizing Happy.
 
+* Generated parsers now activate the language extension `-XNoStrictData` without
+  which every use of a happy parser would lead to an immediate crash (#273).
+  This causes us to drop support for GHC < 8.0.
+
 * Break up into libraries:
 
   - `happy-backend-glr`
diff --git a/happy.cabal b/happy.cabal
index f0326da6..cdafc096 100644
--- a/happy.cabal
+++ b/happy.cabal
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ executable happy
   hs-source-dirs: src
   main-is: Main.lhs
 
-  build-depends: base < 5,
+  build-depends: base >= 4.9 && < 5,
                  array,
                  containers >= 0.4.2,
                  mtl >= 2.2.1,
@@ -164,5 +164,5 @@ test-suite tests
   build-tools: happy
   ghc-options: -threaded
 
-  build-depends: base < 5, process < 1.7
+  build-depends: base >= 4.9 && < 5, process < 1.7
   default-language: Haskell98
diff --git a/packages/backend-lalr/src/Happy/Backend/LALR.hs b/packages/backend-lalr/src/Happy/Backend/LALR.hs
index ade8fe78..2e234202 100644
--- a/packages/backend-lalr/src/Happy/Backend/LALR.hs
+++ b/packages/backend-lalr/src/Happy/Backend/LALR.hs
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ importsToInject debug = concat ["\n", import_array, import_bits, import_glaexts,
                            "import Control.Monad (ap)\n"
 
 langExtsToInject :: [String]
-langExtsToInject = ["MagicHash", "BangPatterns", "TypeSynonymInstances", "FlexibleInstances"]
+langExtsToInject = ["MagicHash", "BangPatterns", "TypeSynonymInstances", "FlexibleInstances", "NoStrictData"]
 
 defines :: Bool -> Bool -> String
 defines debug coerce = unlines [ "#define " ++ d ++ " 1" | d <- vars_to_define ]