Happy Days, but they`re not comfortable |
Happy Days, but they`re not comfortable | 3.07.2009 | |
 Digging deep ... Julie Forsyth stars as Winnie in Samuel Beckett`s Happy Days. Picture: David Geraghty |
AS far as acting roles go, this one almost seems masochistic. It certainly is absurd.
For the entire duration of Happy Days, the Samuel Beckett play presented by Melbourne`s Malthouse Theatre, Julie Forsyth is buried in what`s supposed to be a mound of earth: up to her waist in the first half, up to her neck in the second.
It`s a tough gig, although Forsyth, named best supporting actress at last year`s Helpmann Awards for Exit the King, can hardly affect surprise, having played the same character, Winnie, two decades ago.
With previews for the show tonight before the official opening next week, the actress plans to prepare for the role as with any other: warm-up exercises and stretches, the usual routine.
"I`m hoping it will be comfortable, with lots of foam around the middle, but I think the idea is that I`m not comfortable," Forsyth told The Australian.
"My memory is that it`s very constricting. It really is an exercise of trying to remain relaxed underneath the mound.
"You`re required to stay still - in the second half, you can only move your eyes."
Happy Days has all the strange absurdities and complexities of any Beckett play. The playwright completed it in 1962, and Malthouse director Michael Kantor said its preoccupations were as relevant as ever: "It speaks across time, like all Beckett pieces.
"Some people get scared by Beckett and think it`s all so serious and so intense and so confusing ... But if you clean away the complications, it`s a very simple kind of genius that is Samuel Beckett."
Read more at The Australian |
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