'Happy Days' a play of sustained comedy

Press, 19 June 1979, Page 6

'Happy Days ' a play of sustained comedy

By

HOWARD McNAUGHTON

“Play” and “Happy Days,” by Samuel Beckett. Directed by Elric Hooper for The Court Theatre; Christchurch Arts Centre, June 18 to 23. Running time: 8 p.m. to 9.55 p.m. In the plays that followed “Godot,” Beckett’s themes remained fairly constant; but his expressive techniques became progressively more compressed and economical. The theme of mankind giving birth astride a grave, stated most amply in “Godot,” recurs often in the later plays; so that Elric Hooper’s set for this whole season makes a highly effective reminder of the playwright’s constancy of purpose. In “Happy Days,” we see another image of the absurdity of human endeavour in the face of the infinite; with the central character, we chuckle at the Almighty’s little jokes, but remember throughout that we are part of the joke.

“Happy Days” presents a woman buried in a mound, surrounded by the various instruments of sexual allurement (lipstick, mirror, brush, etc) which are ludicrously irrelevant to her condition. Her speech, like her lipstick, is essentially an exercise in facile optimism which is pathetically inadequate, but at no stage does her belief in the “happiness” of her days collapse. Indeed, last night the mood of contrived good humour was so contagious as to produce a great deal of laughter from the audience. However, the bleaker implications of the situation are inescapable: however they are interpreted, the lifesupporting contrivances are an escapist illusion, governing the audiences, as well as the actors, of comedy.

Elizabeth Moody finds in this central role an extremely rich diversity of emotional implications. Beckett’s direc-

tions require that she often resort to a nostalgic, stagey manner, and in this facet of the part she excels, with the decipherment of her toothbrush’s inscription providing one of the best pieces of sustained comedy engineering that I can remember. On the side that approaches tragedy, she is also very moving, depicting a pathetic optimism that is all too recognisableIn the areas between, them could perhaps he more distinct changes in tempo and delivery style. The single supporting role is done by William Kircher in a voice that I found too stylised. But his final scene, crawling up the mound in a hopeless effort to reach his wife (or her revolver?) is done excellently. “Happy Days" Is preceded by the short “Play,” which I arrived too late to see; but from the warmth of the audience it had clearly been very well received.