“To me, it’s a dreamscape,” says director Matthew Earnest of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days,” which opens at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill on September 3 and continues through September 13.
First of all, let me warn you not to confuse this play with the 1970s TV show “Happy Days,” starring Henry Winkler as “The Fonz.” If you go to the Bridge Street Theatre expecting that sitcom, you might be startled to see a woman buried up to her hips in a mound of earth. She is Winnie—no last name—and her only companion is Willie, her rather silent husband (who, according to Earnest, might only be a memory).
“It’s really happening inside of Winnie’s mind,” the director suggests, about “Happy Days.” “Obviously, it’s not a naturalistic play; she’s not really buried in a mound. This is a metaphor, of course, as all theater—good theater—is. Everything that gives her security is vanishing, but she doesn’t give up. In fact, she seems almost impervious to it. She has her reality that she believes in, and I think that’s what keeps all of us going.”
Most people see Beckett’s work as a tragic cry of existential despair, but Earnest disagrees. “I find it hysterical—like Don Rickles hysterical,” he says. “I find it very ornery and eccentric; I’m the opposite of depressed by it. His main topic is human resiliency.”
Beckett’s philosophy—or at least two lines from his novel The Unnameable—unexpectedly become a successful refrigerator magnet: “I can’t go on. I’ll go on.”
I suspect that Beckett’s worldview was influenced by his years in the French Resistance, facing death at every moment. He was a courier between French forces and Allied armies, and after his cell was betrayed, he left Paris and walked for six weeks to a safe house in the south of France. There Beckett remained for three years, till the war ended—buried alive, like Winnie.
As a director, Earnest is a minimalist, preferring a simple, uncluttered stage—as a reaction to his mentor, Adrian Hall, who would fill the theater with as many children, animals, ribbons, and soda bottles as possible. This makes Earnest perfect for the desperate Spartan landscapes of Beckett.
But this is his first time directing the playwright. “It’s been a long time coming,” Earnest remarks. “I’ve admired him from afar, and gone to see the plays. I am a lifetime student of Samuel Beckett, and this is finally my date with destiny.”
Earnest has an impressive resume. He’s directed more than half of Shakespeare’s plays, and was given permission by Bertolt Brecht’s family to translate “The Caucasian Chalk Circle” and “Saint Joan of the Stockyards.” He’s also translated works by Chekhov, Ibsen, and Frank Wedekind—and written his own plays, with titles like “Doctor Tedrow’s Last Breath,” and “Can You Forgive Her?”
Looking at Earnest’s website, I was struck by the visual design of his plays, with sensual colors and shrewd composition reminiscent of late Matisse. This is the work of Will Bezek, Earnest’s husband, who creates costumes and scenic design for most of his shows, including “Happy Days.”
But it’s not that simple. “Theater is a team sport,” Earnest explains. “There’s a lot more collaboration than people realize, even in the directing department. Very often, the actor has a better idea than I do. Very often, a costume designer will have a brilliant idea about lights, or about a prop. And I often will have a pretty decent idea about a costume. We sort of play together like a jazz band.”
“Happy Days” is staged at Bridge Street Theater in Catskill September 3-13.
