So, what’s the point..?

Anex Theatre Productions presents Happy Days, an absurdist play by, as many believe, the king of absurdism, Samuel Beckett. This 53 year old play still holds significance, speaking to the human condition within the modern world. Zena Wood directs Margot Wood and Shedrick Jacobs in a considered, poignantly crafted, and musing production.

Happy Days is one of the pinnacle existential works in Absurdism, raising questions about our search for a meaningful life, and the ultimate search for understanding our existence. 

I enjoyed Wood’s on-the-knife-edge of caricature in her manifestation of Winnie. It speaks volumes to the act we put on daily. Smile, so everyone knows you’re happy. Smile, so you can fool yourself you’re happy. Wood adds, every so often, a momentary garish smile amidst her seeming rambling.

Seeming. Because if one listens carefully, in between the rules for getting on with her day, and the constant “Hoo-oo!” nagging of poor old Willie, and vague remembrances of snippets of stories… amidst all this… comes the dreadful realisation that we are helpless, have no agency, our fleeting life on earth is simply… for nothing.

Winnie is buried up to her waist in Act I. Beckett’s original set calls for ‘a mound’. Various stagings over the decades have seen Winnie rooted in elaborately built rolling hills, beach sand, and often, unidentifiable masses, plain or adorned with stuff. The ‘mound’ has come to be used as the major signifier of what’s ‘holding Winnie down’.

In Wood’s Happy Days, designer Marisha Eygelaar has constructed a huge ballroom gown heavy with layers of pink lace, red shweshwe fabric and, more lace. Culture and correctness, propriety – expectations of it – help us ritualise daily life. There are times to wear a hat and times not to wear a hat, Winnie explains. The dress’s layers conceal beneath those skirts the metaphorical boy hiding from history, from time. The elegant lace covers, smothers, the shweshwe below, but the shweshwe is prominently worn around Winnie’s torso too. The print, popular in traditional African dress was introduced to Africa by Dutch settlers centuries ago. This cross-appropriation and fluid ‘marker’ of heritage, adds yet another layer (to that dress) of time’s business – all merges into one in the end.

Happy Days‘ interrogation of time begins with Winnie unable to contextualise her stories. They are significant “happy memories” in her life, yet, “what day was that?” she asks. “It happened once before, what?”

She sinks into time and ever-growing disappointment; in Act 2, Winnie is neck-deep, the satin lapels of the dress near-strangling her. Time’s slow march steadily, inevitably, is swallowing her. But, as she sinks, she sings. Although her spirit is slightly more lacklustre than before, she can still crack a smile, however weakened it may be.

So then, we ask, what’s the point? Why do I bother writing this? Why do you bother reading this?

All most of us do is guess. Many find solace in religion. Winnie prays too. But still she speaks of Willie’s “wonderful gift – wish I had it” to be able to sleep. Sleep eternally?

Willie’s final ambiguous reach up leaves Winnie asking, “Is it me you’re after, Willie, or is it something else?” Hopeful, she exclaims what a happy day it is, choosing to believe he’s reaching for her, and not the pistol… – Sarah Roberson

Happy Days is on tonight (02/10) @ 10pm @ Alexander Bar. Click here for production info.