• Advertise
  • Request Review
  • Write for Us
  • Privacy
  • Login

Theatre Bubble

The UK Theatre Network

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Features
  • Spotlight
  • Opinions
  • Interviews
  • Guides
  • Tickets

Happy Days – Young Vic

February 20, 2015 by Verity Healey Leave a Comment

Review of: Happy Days
Price:
£10, £19.50, £25, £35

Reviewed by: Verity Healey
Rating:
5
On February 20, 2015
Last modified:February 20, 2015

Summary:

'a balm for the sores of existence'

More Details

Ritual lies at the heart of Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days. Coming to the theatre to watch such a production as currently on at the Young Vic, is also a ritual. An irony Beckett must have been aware of, perhaps alluded to in his characters Mr & Mrs Shower (or Cooker).

HD

Juliet Stevenson as Winnie. Photo credit Johan Persson

Yet the play simultaneously explores those daily tasks that are tedious but necessary- or rather are tedious if one is feeling nebulous- such as cleaning one’s teeth, brushing one’s hair, masturbating (her husband Willie (a deliberate British euphemism) over a lewd photograph), worrying, perhaps as one should, over the contents of the toothpaste- the missing noun Winnie cannot read word play on the state of her relationship with her husband- and then worrying further at the decline in one’s eyesight and memory.

In this production, where the characters remain almost totally still in their allotted hideouts- Winnie buried first up to her waist and then, in the second act, up to her neck in Mother Earth on Vicki Mortimer’s stage, wearing it as if a robe, Juliet Stevenson and David Beames as Winnie and Willie, would not be out of place in Think of England, a TV documentary by chronicler of our modern age and photojournalist Martin Parr.

Because Happy Days creates a specific visual image- or series of them onstage- that juxtapose with the more universal themes and ”the combination of the mysteries and the factual, the strange and the practical” even though nothing much happens.

Floods of images come to us through mostly Winnie’s words- stories that take place elsewhere and inhabit a different space- and Willie reading out, with glee, the job adverts or death notices, a recollection of the brief passing by of Mr and Mrs Shower (or Cooker)- derived from the German ”schauen’ and ‘gucken”, to look- reminding the audience of their voyeurism or that we are indeed, them. Onstage, Winnie’s parasol catches fire, she hums tunes from Franz Lehar’s The Merry Widow, to go with the semi rakish Willie.

Tom Gibbons’ sound are the electric shocks to wake up the audience in a collective shudder. That and the scree falling on Winnie, gives us a sense of continual torture.

Paule Constable’s hard nonfluctuating bright light is a metaphor for what Winnie sees all too well- her painfully diminishing existence which is slowly being swallowed up by the ground. Not for her ”old age should burn and rave at close of day” or is it? Is there a redemptive feel to Natalie Abrahami’s production?

Compare with Blasted (Sarah Kane) which I saw straight after Happy Days at the Crucible, Sheffield. That play, though borrowing from Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, features another character up to his neck in it- this time journalist hack Ian, who sits, water pouring onto his head (not scree) in a hole. The struggle between him and the young the girl he abuses to stay together, mirrors the struggle between Winnie and Willie- whom, though seeming not to be able to be with each other- yet, also, can be. As we see they are together and must be so, even if Willie’s last act is ambiguous. As in Blasted, as here, the relationship, the situation is strangely cleansing, strangely redemptive- think Gloucester in King Lear or more so with Winnie, Lear raging in his den on the common.

Juliet Stevenson is like the bird Beckett intended the character to be, one who, despite being weighted down by the earth, brings an optimistic lightness that makes it seem she may float and take flight at any moment. David Beames, is tortoise like, scuttling back and forth in his hole with quiet desperation and instability, constantly alluded to by the presence of the gun Winnie must protect him from.

The production is not a means by which to try and convey ‘meaning’ necessarily but is a ‘balm for the sores of existence’. As illustrated by the piece’s final song- ‘I love you so’ from The Merry Widow.

Happy Days continues at the Young Vic until 21st March

further reading on Happy Days

Author: Verity HealeyI write about theatre, I write short stories/ poetry www.verityhealey.blogspot.com, I also sometimes make films.

Filed Under: Review Tagged With: Happy Days, Natalie Abrahami, Samuel Beckett, Young Vic

Join the discussion Cancel reply

Review / The Journey To Venice at the Finborough Theatre

Bjorg Vik’s play The Journey To Venice is a delightful production, entertaining yet full of pathos. A play with a [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Tzarini Meyler talks KITES at VAULT Festival

We spoke to Artistic Director of LipZinc Theatre, writer and performer Tzarini Meyler about her upcoming show at VAULT Festival [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Naomi Westerman talks BATMAN (aka Naomi’s Death Show)

We spoke to writer and performer Naomi Westerman from Little But Fierce about her upcoming show at VAULT Festival Can [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Angharad Jones on The Swearing Jar 

From New Perspectives, The Swearing Jar is a comedy about love, heartbreak, living with the past and accepting the future. We spoke to director Angharad [Read More]

INTERVIEW / Unleash The Llama talks Five Years With The White Man

We spoke to the creators of Five Years With The White Man about the upcoming show coming to VAULT Festival [Read More]

Top Posts & Pages

  • Tim Edge talks Under the Black Rock
  • Writing the Perfect Press Release
  • 5 Stage Elements to Consider for a Rousing Theatrical Production
  • Katy Owen: Auditioning for Oxford School of Drama
  • Crowdfunding In Theatre - An Overview
  • The Pros and Cons of Crowdfunding
  • Angharad Jones on The Swearing Jar 
  • Jane Eyre at the National Theatre
  • Is this the real location of Ambridge?
  • Complicité's A Minute Too Late at the National Theatre
  • Verity Healey
    Author

  • February 20th, 2015
  • comment iconNo Comments
  • FacebookTweetLinkedInEmail

    Newsletter

    Enjoyed what you've read? Get even more great content directly to your inbox - Completely Free

    About Theatre Bubble

    Theatre Bubble is the news, review and blogging site created by Blue Pie Media and run by a dedicated team of outstanding editors and writers: we're always looking for new contributors - to find out more click here.

    Contact Us

    News: news@theatrebubble.com
    Reviews: reviews@theatrebubble.com
    Website: webmaster@theatrebubble.com

    Privacy Policy

    Copyright © 2023 · Blue Pie Media

     

    Loading Comments...
     

      Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

      Email sent!