Customer Reviews
"Just to know that in theory you hear me, even though in fact you don't, is all I need." - By: Mary Whipple, 13 Jul 2006 
When this 1961 play opens, a woman is buried waist deep in a pile of sand, a large bag on her left, & a deep tunnel behind & below her on the right. The environment is treeless & bleak, & we have no idea where, why, or how the woman (Winnie) came to be in her present predicament. Throughout the first act, Winnie engages in the minutiae of her life, pulling out her glasses, a parasol, a gun, a music box, & her hat from her bag as she blathers on about brushing her teeth, & wonders if she has brushed her hair. Occasionallly, she looks toward the tunnel where she addresses the absent Willie, who does not respond. When he emerges from the tunnel briefly & hums, Winnie gaily announces "Another happy day," before he disappears again.
In the second act, Winnie appears older, she has sunk into the sand so that only her head shows, & she is unable to move it. Though she is not sure Willie is alive & callls to him repeatedly, he ignores her until he suddenly emerges, dressed in tuxedo & top hat & tries to crawl upward toward Winnie. When he fails, the play ends.
In this classic example of the Theatre of the Absurd, the characters are out of sync with the world as the audience knows it, living in some universe with which we are unfamiliar. Their lives are meaningless, undirected, & irrational, yet, during the play, they somehow survive the passage of time, the lack of connection with each other, & their purposeless existence. Willie seems to be trying, futilely, to connect with Winnie at the end, but, absurdly, Winnie cannot see him & he cannot reach her.
Author Samuel Beckett once said, "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness...it's the most comical thing in the world." In that sense this is a funny play, but there were few laughs from the audience when I saw it recently. The production starred one of New England's most brilliant actresses in a mind-blowing performance, the lighting provided visual interest, & the direction was first-rate. Yet despite the fact that this was an audience of theatre-goers accustomed to serious drama, most of the audience was yawning by intermission, & about one-third had falllen asleep. If Beckett's intention were to show the meaninglessness of life through the monotony of this play, he succeeded brilliantly--putting the audience to sleep has to be the ultimate absurdity. Mary Whipple
bitter end - By: Bernd Kotz, 31 May 2006 The alarm clock rings & Winnie awakes. It is the beginning of a new day. The scene is a flat landscape with Winnie in the centre. She is embedded up over her waist in the mound. Winnie is happy about every single day. Willie, her husband, lies behind her & he seldom speaks. He is reading the newspaper. Winnie is preoccupied with oneself, putting thinks out of her bag & talking to Willie.
In the second act Winnie is embedded up to the neck in the mound. Her speech is an endless flow of words. She is more melancholy as in the first act. I think Beckett wanted to show the process of getting old & cope with it. They both are two different characters, but they complete in a very special way. Remembering the past & being happy with the present is one of the pleasures of life. Happy days will end, but if not today, it will be another precious day.
