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THREE ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES. SAT DEC 3, 1pm & 3pm; SUN DEC 4, 1pm.
"Mary Pauley does all of that and more. It’s impossible to imagine a more nuanced, insightful, controlled performance than this astonishing portrayal... For Beckett’s brilliant monologue director Michael Martin has found a brilliant voice in Pauley. What a privilege to see such a simple, expert production—an unforgettable tour de force."
[Vella, St Bernard Voice]
"Winnie is a grand hostess, polite and cheerful, trying desperately to avoid the ever-present danger of silence. Pauley, atop her tall mound of earth, sits both regal and meek. The actress beautifully encapsulates ...Read More
THREE ADDITIONAL PERFORMANCES. SAT DEC 3, 1pm & 3pm; SUN DEC 4, 1pm.
"Mary Pauley does all of that and more. It’s impossible to imagine a more nuanced, insightful, controlled performance than this astonishing portrayal... For Beckett’s brilliant monologue director Michael Martin has found a brilliant voice in Pauley. What a privilege to see such a simple, expert production—an unforgettable tour de force."
[Vella, St Bernard Voice]
"Winnie is a grand hostess, polite and cheerful, trying desperately to avoid the ever-present danger of silence. Pauley, atop her tall mound of earth, sits both regal and meek. The actress beautifully encapsulates both maternal strength and childlike frailty... Michael Martin directs the production with a delicate touch... [He] pulls double duty as Willie, a performance that is both grotesque and heartbreaking."
[Troll, Times-Picayune]
"Pauley is absolutely superb as Winnie, immersing herself into this tortured soul who always wears the countenance of a cockeyed optimist."
[Smason, examiner.com]
Oh les beaux jours!
FOUR HUMOURS THEATER [www.fourhumourstheater.org] follows Amy Woodruff's Feeding the Moonfish with a few (more) of its favorite things...
...an environmental staging, a la our productions of Kennedy's Children, The Night of the Iguana, The Park Bench Plays, and The Bachelor in New Orleans...
...a juicy role for a magnificent actress, and...
...the great Irish dramatist Samuel Beckett.
HAPPY DAYS is Beckett's follow-up to Krapp's Last Tape (produced by 4H two years ago, under Ed Bishop's direction, in an overstuffed Rampart Street backroom), written upon request of his wife, who wanted him to attempt a "happy play" next.
It follows a day...another day...maybe a kind of seaside holiday...in the life of Winnie, who passes her time between “the bell for waking and the bell for sleep” buried up to her bosom in a sandy mound of earth.
To distract herself and keep her spirits up, optimistic Winnie has only her bag (containing toiletries, a parasol, and a revolver); her inattentive, self-absorbed husband Willie (muttering to himself at the foot of the hill over items in the newspaper); her strict routine of prayer and personal grooming; and, especially, her incessant, heart-breaking prattle. "Oh, another happy day!"
The script is strangely sexual as well, more than just a 'tribute' to the never-say-die spirit. Happy Days can easily be interpreted as being about the tribulations of lifelong marriage, its losses and needs.
Yet despite her bleak predicament, Winnie never gives in to despair. After all, it's always possible that she could “simply float up into the blue … And that perhaps some day the earth will yield and let me go, the pull is so great, yes, crack all round me and let me out.”
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