Happy Days
28/08/10 19:44
Theatre Company: Silo Theatre
Writer: Samuel Beckett
Director: Michael Hurst
Cast: Robyn Malcolm and Cameron Rhodes
Location: Herald Theatre
Amidst blazing light and scorched grass, Winnie is half-buried in a mound. Still she greets each day with a smil, rummaging around in her handbag, applying makeup, brushing her teeth and nattering away to her husband. She’s always got a loaded revolver stashed away should it all get too much. Hers might not be the ideal life, but should a happy day come her way she’ll seize it with both hands. Buried slowly beneath the mire of an indifferent universe, Winnie offers the bravest response possible. She persists.
In HAPPY DAYS, Samuel Beckett’s luminous simplicity and boldly imaginative vision deals with existence in a world where existence has ceased to exist. Ironic, funny, despairing and courageous.
Michael Hurst once again takes a modern masterpiece and distils its abiding essence to produce a theatrical experience acutely insightful and unexpectedly moving. The magnificent Robyn Malcolm joins with old mate Cameron Rhodes to take us all brink in a tour de force performance of this legendary work from the writer of WAITING FOR GODOT.
I know that Samuel Beckett is a “great” playwright but I’m afraid this story just seems like a load of old nonsense to me. By his own admission, Samuel Beckett said it was tells the story of a woman stoically making the best of the “most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody”. She is sinking into the ground alive and it’s full of ants; and the sun is shining endlessly day and night and there is not a tree ... there’s not shad, nothing; and a bell wakes you up all the time and all you’ve got is this little parcel of things to see you through life. Why on earth would I want to waste and evening sharing this depressing fantasy?
The only thing that saved this evening for me was Robyn Malcolm’s incredible performance. God she is gorgeous and SO talented. Her energy was awe-inspiring. She was mesmerising. Without a performer like her I would probably not have lasted through the whole show.
Writer: Samuel Beckett
Director: Michael Hurst
Cast: Robyn Malcolm and Cameron Rhodes
Location: Herald Theatre
Synopsis (from flyer):
Amidst blazing light and scorched grass, Winnie is half-buried in a mound. Still she greets each day with a smil, rummaging around in her handbag, applying makeup, brushing her teeth and nattering away to her husband. She’s always got a loaded revolver stashed away should it all get too much. Hers might not be the ideal life, but should a happy day come her way she’ll seize it with both hands. Buried slowly beneath the mire of an indifferent universe, Winnie offers the bravest response possible. She persists.
In HAPPY DAYS, Samuel Beckett’s luminous simplicity and boldly imaginative vision deals with existence in a world where existence has ceased to exist. Ironic, funny, despairing and courageous.
Michael Hurst once again takes a modern masterpiece and distils its abiding essence to produce a theatrical experience acutely insightful and unexpectedly moving. The magnificent Robyn Malcolm joins with old mate Cameron Rhodes to take us all brink in a tour de force performance of this legendary work from the writer of WAITING FOR GODOT.
Thoughts on this Production:
I know that Samuel Beckett is a “great” playwright but I’m afraid this story just seems like a load of old nonsense to me. By his own admission, Samuel Beckett said it was tells the story of a woman stoically making the best of the “most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody”. She is sinking into the ground alive and it’s full of ants; and the sun is shining endlessly day and night and there is not a tree ... there’s not shad, nothing; and a bell wakes you up all the time and all you’ve got is this little parcel of things to see you through life. Why on earth would I want to waste and evening sharing this depressing fantasy?
The only thing that saved this evening for me was Robyn Malcolm’s incredible performance. God she is gorgeous and SO talented. Her energy was awe-inspiring. She was mesmerising. Without a performer like her I would probably not have lasted through the whole show.