Happy Days by Beckett at CalShakes
Dan Hiatt as Willie and Patty Gallagher as Winnie; photo by Kevin Berne.
HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett, directed by Jonathan Moscone. California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes), Bruns Amphitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, CA 94563 (just off Highway 24 at the Shakespeare Festival Way/Gateway Exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel.) Grounds open two hours prior to show time for picnicking. 510.548.9666 or www.calshakes.org. August 12-September 6.
SAMUEL BECKETT’S HAPPY DAYS IS A BORE
At the risk of being labeled a philistine, Happy Days has been unfairly fostered on theatre audiences as an absurdist intellectual masterpiece. It is not and this was recognized by a majority of the opening night audience. Director Jonathan Moscone has a “deep emotional connection to Beckett” and has pulled out all stops to make the play palatable to a general audience. After Marsha Mason became unavailable for the role of Winnie, he was fortunate to hire a very brilliant actor, Patty Gallagher, for the role and bring aboard Todd Rosenthal, winner of a Tony Award for August:
The play is a monolog that begins with an aging woman, Winnie (Patty Gallagher), buried up to her bosom in sand, but in Moscone’s vision it is a dirt pile strewn with rubbish dirt apparently as a metaphor for a trashy world. Her only props are a red parasol and a black bag containing all her possessions. After being awakened by an intrusive bell ringing, she begins her day with a cursive prayer before proclaiming “Another happy day!” From the bag she first extracts a toothbrush, tooth paste and later, a lipstick, patent medicine elixir, a nail file, a revolver and finally a music box. The bag is her “paradise enow.” Her comments are banal starting: “What is the alternative? “Did I brush and comb my hair?” “The earth is very tight today?” “Was I ever lovable?” “What a blessing nothing grows.”
On the other side of the mound is the partially seen Willie (Dan Hiatt), her aging husband, with a soiled handkerchief and a ratty bowler hat whose only function is to offer brief grunts of approval or disapproval. For inexplicable reasons she spends an inordinate amount of time trying to decipher the label on the toothbrush that has the word “hog” on the handle. It does allow Beckett to give Willie a line of dialog when she asks “What’s a hog?” His answer from the other side of the dirt pile is, “A castrated male swine.” Do you think it is self referential metaphorical comment suggesting why he never offers to dig Winnie out of her predicament? Hiatt has another very meaningful (?) word, “fornication” that comes in the second act to explain the function of an ant carrying an ovum. It stretches a point to assert that there is no such thing as a “bad” part for an actor. The role Willie is a total waste of award winning Dan Hait’s talents. It is the epitome of understatement when she says to Willie, “I sometimes find your attitude a little strange.” Her recollection of their “sadness after intercourse” brings a wistful comment, “When we first met you said, I worship you Winnie. Be mine. . . and nothing after that...” This thought is somewhat verbalized when she conjectures “To sing too soon is fatal.”
The role of Winnie is probably one of the most demanding for any actor. During the first act Ms. Gallagher has the luxury being able to use her hands and props to fortify her expressive face, darting eyes and excellent nuanced delivery. In the second act, she is not afforded that luxury when she is buried up to her chin in the trash heap. Alas, one of the longtime season ticket holders (JR) opined, “Does she have to be buried up to her tits in dirt, to tell us that life is rough?”
The first act runs about one hour and the second act about 30 minutes.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com