“Inspection of hands…lipstick,
if screw system screw back before returning
to bag…look at brush then at bag…inpection
of mound after ‘human nature’…exaggerate
puzzlement” – stage directions
from Beckett’s working draft of Happy
Days
FUSION is pleased to present one of the seminal
works of the English language stage, the absurd,
mercurial, intricate and profound Happy
Days by
Samuel Beckett. A tour de force for
the actress playing Winnie, Happy Days is
richly rewarding, brilliantly
funny, and profoundly thought-provoking. Your
life will not be the same for having spent
an evening with Winnie and Willie.
Cast in stone? Take the ever-precise journey
of a day in the life of Beckett’s Winnie
and Willie, the two characters in Happy
Days.
A couple bound to the earth literally as
well
as figuratively,
with their
eyes
always casting beyond, Winnie and Willie
expose
the comedic
tensions
and
tedium
of “until death do us part.”
We join Winnie at the beginning of her day,
buried to her waist in a mound, as she arranges
her toilette and discusses her plans and her
memories with Willie, her husband, who lives
beneath the mound. It is a strange introduction;
as Beckett explained, “In this play you
have the combination of the strange and the
practical, the mysterious and the factual.
This is the crux of both the comedy and the
tragedy of it.” As Winnie progresses
through the ecclesiastically-precise rituals
that form her day, we gain insight to the “hopeful
futilitarian” existence of a unique yet
universal woman rationalizing her existence
and that of her mate, whom she cajoles to surface
from time to time to listen, but barely respond.
As the play progresses, Winnie sinks in the
slow sands of time and disappointment, all
the while maintaining her ritualized optimism
and bravado. Willie makes one last appearance, “dressed
to kill.”
While
playing Winnie at BAM in 2008, the great
Irish actress Fiona Shaw noted the play is “… the
aria of the person who is stuck but is not
bitter. These are wonderful moments when
someone strokes eternity into the moment.
I’ve
always thought Beckett is the very end of
modern writing. There’s no God, there’s
no romance. And yet there is immense love
in it for humanity. He is releasing tenderness
on the audience.”
Laurie
Thomas brings the indomitable Winnie
to life in a virtuoso performance of one
of the
most demanding and rewarding of all female
characters ever written. FUSION co-founder
Jacqueline Reid directs a production that
features
a startling setting and fabulous language.
"Mix
a powerful imagination with a logic in
absurdum, and the result will be either
a paradox or an Irishman. If it is an Irishman,
you will
get the paradox into the bargain…The
text for Happy Days is
more concerned with the predicament of
man on
earth, of our relationships
with one another,,, the voice crying in
the wilderness." – Swedish Academy
Presenter Karl Gierow, Samuel Beckett’s
Nobel Prize for Literature Ceremony Speech,
1969
Happy Days continues through
November 14 with Thursday through Friday
performances
at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m. and
8:00 p.m.,
and Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m. Tickets
are $30 for general admission, $25 for
students and seniors. Thursday performances
(excluding
opening night) feature a $10.00 student
rush (with valid I.D.) and $20 actor rush
(with professional resume.) The first Saturday
matinee,
October 30, is a pay-what-you-wish performance.
Group discounts are also available. Free
parking
is plentiful. The Cell is located at
700
1st St. N.W. (just west of Broadway and
south
of
Lomas.). For tickets, call 505-766-9412
or click here:
Substantial
discounts are available when you purchase a
