Happy Days

Happy Days

Theatre for a New Audience

May 13, 2017

Photo courtesy of
Theatre for A New Audience

Diane Wiest is captivating in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, now playing Downtown Brooklyn at Theatre for a New Audience.  She wins the audience over with perky optimism in face of her character’s overwhelming dilemma.  We pull for her as despair builds over time and everything seems bleak.  Her energy stays with us long after the curtain comes down; allowing us to ponder Beckett’s provocative writing and apply it to our own circumstances.

Act I opens with Winnie (played by Diane Wiest) stuck, up to her waist, in a hole in the ground.  She starts her morning routine as usual: brushing her teeth, putting on her lipstick, fixing her hat.  Every small observation she makes is a reason to proclaim that a happy day is ahead.  Her husband Willie (played by Jarlath Conroy) is within earshot, but is also concealed in a hole in the ground.  Next to her is her trusted black bag, providing not only everything she needs, but the routine to get her through the day from the horn sound that signals it’s time to wake up, to the one that signals it’s time to sleep.

Diane Wiest
Photo courtesy of Theatre for a New Audience

Act II finds Winne buried deeper in the baron earth.  She reveals some of the tragic details of her predicament.  Her optimism is fading, yet her persistence is as strong as ever.

Beckett explores how complacency sets an overpowering trap that can easily consume.  Ms. Wiest creates moments that are full of poignancy and humor.  She instantaneously transforms the mood as the thoughts of her character transgress.  Her character works every angle in order not to face her dilemma head on.  Ms. Wiest pulls out all the stops to find innumerable tactics to keep Winnie focused on surviving.  She is truly spectacular.

Happy Days is running at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center through May 28.  The play is a thoughtful encounter that leads to meaningful introspection.

Domenick Danza