Happy Days

At the top of the play, Winnie, the main character in Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days, is immersed to her waist in a tall mound of earth and is clutching a giant handbag containing a comb, a toothbrush, toothpaste, lipstick, a nail file, a parasol and a music box – objects which she busies herself with while sharing memories, quotations, stories, and dreams… at least until she’s interrupted, something that occurs constantly, much like it does in the rest of our lives. And the mound of earth is not your typical garden variety pile of dirt. No, this one has a strangely menacing presence.

UNESCO proclaimed 2006 as The Year of Beckett to mark the 150th anniversary of the Nobel Prize winning author’s birth. Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days – a play suffused with tenderness, lucidity and humor – will be performed by Ukrainian actor/director Oleg Liptsin. Liptsin premiered this production of Happy Days at Beckett Festivals in Zurich and Krakow earlier this year. Those interested in attending are encouraged to purchase tickets early as seating at the intimate Shelton Theater is limited.