Fiona Shaw: Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days"

[diddymuck]

gad, what happened to her?? Looks like a grandma on a Texas trailer park!!!

[scuzzbuzzproductions]

I can't believe Saffron Burrows was in a relationship with her.

Saffron Burrows!

X's

[JmViceHeart]

I've just watched her reading John Donne's poetry also! She is breath taking!

[saltairesam]

I've just watched her reading John Donne's poetry on the BBC and she was stunning

[goback3spaces]

Happy Days is a bad play and Beckett is a classic example of the Emperor's New Clothes. There's no drama, no change, no plot development. To abandon Aristotilian paradigms is to put a very severe burden on oneself as a playwright and it's apparent from Happy Days that Beckett isn't up to the task.

[voyowee]

i love her, she is one of the true greats!

[nikol1981]

i saw it in Epidaurus, Greece...there are no words to describe this experience...

[urusova]

i'd like to see this play. will it ever play in toronto?

[dinnerbucket9]

Happy Days is a very tender beast that I love as much as GODOT, ENDGAME or even KRAPP and see it as a classic domestic farce that most anyone should recognize and enjoy as such, whatever the lovely under-tow.

[fedtrooper]

Watched Happy Day on PBS years ago, with Irene Worth, buried up to her middle in a mound of dirt. Then she returns for the second act buried up to her neck.

[tonkanamagarcu]

btw i love fiona's voice and the way she talks...all the best to her and saffron

[okinawa11]

well, apparently, they met whilst producing "the powerbook", started a relationship (saffron left mike figgis), and have been together ever since. i think they're awesome together - so intelligent, classy and poised!

[tonkanamagarcu]

she's dating saffron burrows right?

[mzzzhedison]

that is correct.

[SimpleBum]

thanks for posting this. there's hardly any fiona shaw interviews, etc that was great

[minervamcgonagall86]

thank you.thank you.thank you.thank you.thank you.thank you.thank you

thank you soooo much for posting this!

[ShinyShinyPlayThing]

It may do... but the stage directions say "the parasol catches fire".

Maybe the audience didn't know HOW to react: that often creates laughter - though I can see that constant sniggering must have been irritating (for the cast as well as many of the audience members).

[ShinyShinyPlayThing]

If anyone is lucky enough to be in New York and able to get a ticket to this while it's still on, then do ANYTHING to see it. Incredible.

[CrassZorro]

I disagree. Firstly, the audience chuckled at every line: a pre-emptive mixture of nervousness and enthusiasm to support their GREAT actress F.S., I guess. It became distracting & detracted from concentrating on the language. The aleatory music, "Happy Days" theme song and high tech blast all seemed out of character w/Beckett aesthetics & significant of what??? The concrete and rubble, along w/the onstage explosion connoted to me WAR, which I think is a mistake. Beckett play or F.S. play?

[ShinyShinyPlayThing]

The first half is very funny - intentionally.

If they were still laughing in Act II, then I'd be fairly alarmed.

The on-stage explosion is written into the play, and I think that as the play says that Winnie is "Buried up to her neck in earth", you are entitled to make it any "earth" you choose - most people thought it suggested global warming, rather than war...

I saw it 4 times in London and once in New York, and I thought it even better in New York. Sad you didn't. I agree re: music!Awful.

[CrassZorro]

The play is, of course, bleakly humorous but I don't think it should inspire constant sniggering. I chalk that up to a NY aud. that wants to "show their support". Would the same exuberance been shown to a no name actor in a blk box prod? Probably not. The mood, therefore, would've been more appropriate, contemplative.

In Beckett's day, the blast would've been an offstage sound cue not a pyrotechnic. Is it my imagination or does pricey theatre encourage artists to go to exorbitant lengths?