JULY 3 - JULY 25

MALTHOUSE THEATRE PRESENTS

HAPPY DAYS

BY SAMUEL BECKETT
DIRECTOR MICHAEL KANTOR
SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER ANNA CORDINGLEY
LIGHTING DESIGNER PAUL JACKSON
SOUND RUSSELL GOLDSMITH

WITH PETER CARROLL & JULIE FORSYTH

LIFE. SHE’S UP TO HER NECK IN IT.

Samuel Beckett was a humorist. Not that you’d guess it from the reverential tones used to describe the great Nobel Laureate absurdist, or the stern- faced portraits glaring back at you from show programs. At the heart of his plays are nonsensical situations, with a strange familiarity, played out by buffoons not unlike ourselves.

In Happy Days, the interdependence of joy and sorrow, faith and despair are enjoined in classic Beckett fashion. Winnie, buried in a mound, still greets each day with a smile, applying her makeup and dutifully packing and unpacking her bag (the reassurance of a revolver within arm’s reach!). Her husband, Willie, burrows somewhere behind her, occasionally scanning the daily news or lending a mumbled reply to her probing questions. Her’s 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.

Michael Kantor once again takes a modern masterpiece and distils its abiding essence to produce a theatrical experience acutely insightful and unexpectedly moving. Julie Forsyth, winner of the 2008 Helpmann Award for Best Supporting Actor for her hilariously tragic performance in Exit the King, joins 2009 Helpmann Award winner Peter Carroll to take us all to the brink in a tour de force performance of this legendary work.

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