More than fifty years on from its debut at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York in 1961, Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days is about to return to London’s West End with a production run scheduled at the Young Vic in early 2015. With Olivier Award-winning actress Juliet Stevenson (Emma, Bend it Like Beckham) to take on the lead role of Winnie, Beckett’s surreal masterpiece will be getting a fiery breath of new life.
Winnie’s predicament is as strange and lamentable as they come as she’s trapped up to her bosom in a scorched and barren earth with her cave dwelling, monosyllabic husband as her only company. Despite the unfortunate reality of her existence she remains high spirited, taking consolation for her lot from the joy of her meager personal possessions, but as time goes on and happy day moments dry up she’s left with little to cling to and a painstakingly slow descent deeper into drought-ridden soil.
It’s a play that looks at the things that we do and what we tell ourselves to get through hardship, along with the strength of women in particular to cope with troubles going down singing. It’s also about the fleeting transience of moments in life and the little rituals we all form to give some vestige of order and solidity to the ongoing forces of chaos and entropy, so for anyone with existential curiosity, this is the play for you.
In addition to Juliet Stevenson, Happy Days has also been cast with David Beames in the only other role in the play, Winnie’s somewhat distanced and disconnected husband, Willie, thanks to the lighter than usual casting efforts of Julia Horan CDG . It will be directed by Natalie Abrahami, who’s previous credits include both Samuel Beckett’s Play and Not I at the Battersea Arts Centre in 2005, so should be well placed to lead Happy Days.
Design for the play is by Vicki Mortimer, with Paule Constable in charge of lighting, Tom Gibbons sound, and Joseph Alford overseeing the movement of Stevenson and Beames.
Happy Days is scheduled to open at the New Vic on the 13th February 2015 with just a five week run until the 21st March 2015. Performances will be at 7:30pm Monday to Saturday with a run time of 2 hours.
Tickets cost £10, £19.50, £25, £35 for the main performances, and £10, £19.50 during the previews period between the 13th and the 18th of February 2015.
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