THEATRE: HAPPY DAYS

Who, mused playwright Samuel Beckett, could withstand relentless heat, unending wakefulness, the crushing physicality of being consumed whole by the earth, but a woman. And not only withstand, but go down singing. And so rises Winnie, a woman who sees the silver-lining, from amongst Beckett’s other dour creations, in a story that is rumoured to have been a request from Beckett’s wife to, “write a happy play.” It seems the best Beckett could manage was, ‘not quite without hope.’ We see a hellish wasteland, an empty-headed, absentee husband beset by nausea and bloody injuries, a droning ‘bedtime’ bell that deprives them of any miniscule respite. Winnie, meanwhile, sees the ghostly remembrances of days past, when she was ‘loveable’, she sees her bag, full of daily diversions. If this is supposed to be a comfort piece it is a bleak one – but so deeply touching is Julie Forsyth’s Winnie, so gently wrought the words of loneliness and longing – that we are cheered nonetheless.

Until Dec 13, Belvoir St Theatre Upstairs, 25 Belvoir St Surry Hills, $25-56, 9699 3444 or belvoir.com.au