Tag Archives: Samuel Beckett

Happy Days
★★★★★

The Tower Theatre

Happy Days

Happy Days

The Tower Theatre

Reviewed – 17th April 2019

★★★★★

 

“Jones and Sullivan have done Beckett justice – a daunting achievement of which many have fallen short”

 

If you’re not familiar with this Samuel Beckett play, first staged in New York in 1961, it follows the daily routine of Winnie, a woman buried up to her waist in a mound of earth. She has a bag of little things that help her get through the day: a toothbrush, a hand mirror, makeup, a hat, a music box. She does her best to maintain her cheery demeanour in spite of everything. Winnie’s husband, Willie, is ever-present, but mostly hidden behind the mound. A masterpiece of absurdism, Happy Days is essentially an hour and forty-minute monologue.

To say the play is challenging, both technically and dramatically, is an understatement. An exercise in anti-theatre, it purposefully breaks all the rules: it’s static, without plot, quiet, adagio, and abstruse. These are all pitfalls for theatremakers, but Robert Pennant Jones’s production with Ruth Sullivan (Winnie) transcends. Jones and Sullivan have done Beckett justice – a daunting achievement of which many have fallen short. They’ve beautifully expressed his insight into empty lives, and people starving for genuine connection. The play feels as relevant today as it was sixty years ago.

The set design (Max) is striking – immediately impressive when you enter the space. Where soft earth or sand is normally used for the mound, Max has crafted a dramatic mountain of sharp shale. The ominous black rocks emphasise the harsh and unforgiving nature of Winnie’s imprisonment. The design leans somewhat into the interpretation that the play’s setting could be Hell.

Peggy Ashcroft, a famous former Winnie, once described the role as “the Hamlet for female actors.” Ruth Sullivan’s performance is as exceptional as the part demands. She expertly plays the veneer of chipper positivity over a profound sadness – the desperate strain beneath Winnie’s apparently breezy attempts to communicate with Willie (Ian Hoare). With the lightest touch, she allows us glimpses into the vastness of Winnie’s loneliness. Tears pool in her eyes before she pulls back with an apologetic smile and sigh: “Oh well… Mustn’t complain…” Sullivan portrays an intellectual, curious, loving woman deprived of stimulation. Neglected. Her joy at the smallest shred of acknowledgement is heart-breaking. Her vulnerability is devastating.

Sullivan’s flawless timing shows a deep sense for the rhythms of Beckett’s language. Her characterisation is so natural it ideally contrasts with the bizarreness of her situation. A dense, enigmatic, nearly two-hour monologue dares an audience not to be bored. But Sullivan is captivating. She lifts the lines, bringing out the poetry in Beckett’s writing. Winnie is delightful, silly, and endearing. She is also acutely suffering, and holding back oceans of anguish. Sullivan’s ability to communicate all of this, while stuck in place from the waist (and later neck) down, is marvellous.

If you’re a Beckett fan, do not miss this show. If you’re new to Beckett, grab this opportunity to discover his genius. Sullivan’s superlative performance deserves a packed house. It’s one you won’t forget.

 

Reviewed by Addison Waite

Photography by David Sprecher and Robert Piwko

 


Happy Days

Tower Theatre until 20th April

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:
To Kill a Mockingbird | ★★★½ | October 2018
Table | ★★★★ | November 2018
The Seagull | ★★★ | November 2018
Talk Radio | ★★★½ | March 2019

 

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

 

Footfalls and Play
★★★★★

Jack Studio Theatre

Footfalls and Play

Footfalls and Play

Jack Studio Theatre

Reviewed – 28th February 2019

★★★★★

 

“Beckett pares his later works to the extreme, wasting no words and here we are compelled to hang on to his every one”

 

Samuel Beckett is often misconstrued as writing inaccessible, absurd theatre with unconventional structures, intangible plots and bleak, sordid characters. Contrary to this, his ability to discard the trappings and complications which make up much of our literature and lay bare the most essential aspects of the human condition is both comic and cathartic. Angel Theatre Company offers two of his short, later plays, ‘Footfalls’ and ‘Play’, both of which are perfect examples of Beckett’s most musical orchestration of scripts, full of technical precision and producing dramatic aural imagery.

In ‘Play’ the scene is set to a background of chattering. Three large urns hold the visible heads of Man, Woman 1 (his wife) and Woman 2 (his mistress); the agelessness, indicated by Beckett, suggest souls in purgatory. Written separately and later interspersed, the three tell their story in short, often fragmented sentences and pauses at a rapid speed while lit by a spotlight which moves directly from one to another. Stage directions specify tempo, tone and volume, even a ‘da capo’ and brief coda. Sometimes appearing as victims of the light, each reacts differently to the sense of interrogation. Rose Trustman as Woman 1, shows the strong, fighting spirit of the wife but doesn’t know how to satisfy the light, telling it to ‘get off her’. Samantha Kamras portrays Woman 2 with a calm confidence, increasingly losing her poise when the light is on her and asking if she is not becoming ‘unhinged’. Ricky Zalman neatly defines the witty quality of Man’s wandering imagination as he speaks. Although the initial soundtrack and face makeup is significantly similar to Minghella’s 2001 film, John Patterson directs with immaculate precision and we are immediately caught up in the intrigue of this love triangle, devoid of stereotypical melodrama and romanticised fiction.

The muted yet detailed noises in ‘Footfalls’ – the bell punctuating the four parts, the pacing of May and the sound of speech – paint a softly poignant and personal picture but the play also brushes the wider question of existence. May, dressed in a dishevelled nightdress, is trapped in a moment in time, which she replays repeatedly as she paces slowly up and down, endlessly revolving something in her mind. She converses with her mother, normally an off-stage voice but in this case played by Pearl Marsland as a haunting, maternal face in the doorway, watching her daughter. In a deeply moving performance from Anna Bonnett, we feel May’s isolation and suffering in her tormented thoughts, her mind gradually fading with her presence on stage. In the two plays, Oliver Fretz’s lighting is impeccable in mood and movement.

The company conveys a rapport which absorbs us into the worlds of these relationships, linked by their raw nature but different in mood and manner. Beckett pares his later works to the extreme, wasting no words and here we are compelled to hang on to his every one.

 

Reviewed by Joanna Hetherington

Photography by Angel Theatre Company

 


Footfalls and Play

Jack Studio Theatre until 9th March

 

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:
Back to Where | ★★★★ | July 2018
The White Rose | ★★★★ | July 2018
Hobson’s Choice | ★★★★ | September 2018
Dracula | ★★★½ | October 2018
Radiant Vermin | ★★★★ | November 2018
Sweet Like Chocolate Boy | ★★★★★ | November 2018
Cinderella | ★★★ | December 2018
Gentleman Jack | ★★★★ | January 2019
Taro | ★★★½ | January 2019
As A Man Grows Younger | ★★★ | February 2019

 

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