Reader Reviews
Happy Days (Lyttelton (National Theatre), West End)
Back to Show Details| Score | Comment | Date |
 | This production shows why Theatre can be such a great work out for the brain. - Caa | 02 Mar 07 |
| Another happy day -- and it certainly was for those of us in the audience yesterday evening. Is there an actress better suited to this difficult play than Fiona Shaw? I can't think of one. She superbly conveyed the desperation of a woman in a hopeless situation (non-specified), who is determined to remain relentlessly cheerful. In the second half particularly, the desperation became more acute and heart-wrenching. Fiona Shaw screwed every last bit of humour from the text, but stopped short of a "comic" performance, never shying away from the pathos the role requires. Just wish I could see it again, if by some mirace it is extended I certainly will. - Louise Dodds-Ely | 28 Feb 07 |
| I've seen this play a few times over 30ish years, but it has never pulled the punch it does here. Fiona Shaw is perfect and the setting and staging terrific. I still haven't got a clue what its about, but can still revel in the theatricality of it all. - Gareth James | 21 Feb 07 |
| Now I know I'm getting old; I feel like a stick in the mud when I go to a Beckett production and am shocked by the liberties taken with the text. First, I was surprised by the gloomy music playing in the theatre as we entered - does Beckett really need mood music? That was nothing compared to the Happy Days theme tune at the interval (yes, the Fonz). What really surprised me was that almost none of the stage directions seemed to be noted. Beckett is very clear when Winnie looks happy and when she does not, also which way she is looking. This is lost in Fiona Shaw's constant emoting and hand wringing. So much that should be imagined is made obvious - Willie's frantic masturbating at a picture, implied but not shown in the text, for example - and it seems to me the whole point of Winnie seeming robotic when she switches on and off her expression is that we see the humanity that underlies the mechanical in human behaviour, particularly repetition of gestures and cliche. If the actress is anguished herself, all that is lost. I was very surprised (call me sad, but I had the text in my hand) that quite a lot of what she said did not appear on the page. I certainly wouldn't like to have to memorise the whole thing and sit on stage up to my neck in sand reading it out, but ... well, it is part of the job to read the thing word for word. I felt like I was at a Beethoven recital, to find that the pianist had not only overlooked the directions but changed a lot of the notes too. I was really surprised - and even more so to read the reviews, which are largely uncritical. Beckett gave very clear instructions about his play, not because he was fussy, but because he is trying to show human frailty in the starkest possible terms, and with it, humour and perseverance. I thought this production lost much of that starkness and therefore much of Beckett's compassion. I think I'd better get the DVD with Billie Whitelaw, who as i remember acted it as the author wrote it. - 84.9.129.200) | 05 Feb 07 |
| I'm still not too sure what it's all about and that's after seeing the play three times! In the Eighties I had the very good fortune to meet Marie Kean -the Irish actress - at the time she was playing Winnie at the Abbey-Peacock theatre Dublin. The character of Winnie is so whimsical that it seems to me somehow more fitting for an Irish actress to play and so Ms Shaw is well cast. Now I can't think why but I didn't ask Marie herself if she knew what he was driving at - or if I did she most probably gave me Beckett's stock reply to anyone questioning his meaning- "'tis of no importance". Well, Sam, in my opinion that ain't good enough! Having got that out of the way - now to the performance - Fiona Shaw is quite simply superb. It's a one woman show and she carries the 1 hour 20 mins running time brilliantly. A lesser actress would have some members of the audience itching to get away. It must be a hard task delivering a surreal monologue to a typical NT audience. But she does and so well to. I wonder if the next time I get to see this play I might try some mind bending drugs before hand - it may then make complete sense. The set almost rivals Ms Shaw - it is quite simply breathtaking. - 172.188.220.65) | 27 Jan 07 |
| HAPPY DAYS, Samuel Beckett, National Theatre, Lyttelton. 18th – 31st January, 2007 With Fiona Shaw as Winnie and Tim Potter as Willie. Under Deborah Warners’ direction the stage is set as a landscape, larger than life. It has a futuristic quality. More than a desert it is an abandoned wasteland shaped and destroyed by the hand of man. This vision is extended to the horizon with a landscape painting in soft hues that hangs as a giant tableau at the back of the stage. It hangs solidly but without substance. So has the spirit of Samuel Beckett’s play, written in English in 1961, been captured from the outset. Throughout the first act Fiona Shaw, as Winnie, is buried to her waist in earth. Willie is seen obliquely from behind, just as Winnie herself sees him. It is testimony to the incredible talents of Fiona Shaw that Winnie’s vivacity and capricious nature are absorbing and compelling as she captivates the audience using her voice and little else, while rummaging in her bag and drawing out items for the day ahead. Beckett makes candid acknowledgement that Winnie is being watched. She comments on what watching herself might be like. ‘What would one make of me?’ she cries, ‘What does it all mean?’ Beckett allows her to address the audience as a reminder that this is a staged, theatrical performance. We need no such reminder, the scene is surreal. The technique injects humour and speaks to us of the distinction between a play, which is a distillation, and reality, which we would not expect to find on the stage! Winnie babbles, mostly to herself, while hoping to be heard, and for some occasional response from Willie. When Willie does respond it is invariably with a substantive, factual comment. Willie relishes this and it causes her to exclaim, as she does frequently throughout the play, that this is indeed a ‘happy day’. While Winnie at times bosses Willie she is constantly afraid of overtaxing the relationship and loosing it altogether. Paltry as it is it is all she has. In the second act, when Willie changes his dress and makes a move up and out of the hovel in which he lives we see that there are two players in this story, each with a tragic reality to be addressed. The play is minimalist to the point of absurdity. Bold and unadorned it reveals the human condition, through Winnie, as one of determined cheerfulness in the face of desolation and, through Willie, as dispassionate acceptance of his condition. It depicts the shallow nature of human relationships, the repetitive banality in the routines of everyday daily life. This distilled realism of this tragicomedy saturates the audience. The cocktail is laced with humour, but not with solutions. This potent mix is not readily forgotten. The haunting quality, stark lighting, and vivid imagery is a triumph. In this production Fiona Shaw has set the standard for the coming year’s Olivier awards. Kimberley M. Griffin - 86.7.46.204) | 21 Jan 07 |
