Happy Days, named by, The Independent as one of the 40 best plays of all time, is by Irish playwright Samuel Beckett and first performed in 1961.
It tells the story of Winnie, a woman who is buried up to her waist in a mound of earth, performing routine mundane tasks and spending the entirety of the play talking to herself and her husband, Willie, who is largely hidden and taciturn. What Beckett wants to represent is the endless repetition of dying moments rather than death itself. His characters wish to finish life but the end never comes because the clock becomes slower and slower. There is still time, always.
-
Running time
70 minutes -
Age guidance
Suitable for all ages -
Content warnings
The Company
-
Catherine Humphrys
Winnie
Catherine Humphrys
Winnie
Theatre includes understudy Maria Josefa/ensemble in The House of Bernarda Alba (National Theatre); Fanny Wilton/ Cover Ella Rentheim in John Gabriel Borkman (Bridge Theatre); Joanie in After All These Years (Brighton and Ventnor Fringe); Doctor in King Lear, Mrs Hawthorn in Hindle Wakes, Elizabeth Almond in The Heiress – all online during Lockdown. Understudy Miss Marple and Dora Bunner in A Murder is Announced UK No.1 Theatre Tour. With Triple C Theatre Co. (co-founded by Catharine, Cory Peterson and Julia Carey in 2012): Burlington Bertie in Ghosts in Greasepaint (Electric Theatre); Marmee/Aunt March in Little Women; Susan in Bed Among The Lentils; June in Way Upstream; Sister James in Doubt (all at Yvonne Arnaud’s The Mill Studio). Film credits include Mrs Peacock in Straight Out of Compton; Sylvia Pankhurst in The Independent Miss Craigie (at BFI March 2022); Lady Mabel in The Bone Witch; Tracey in Strangers; Customer in Bao Bao.
-
Chris Diacolpoulos
Willie
Chris Diacolpoulos
Willie
Chris’ first professional appearance was as at the age of 12 as a child actor at the Royal Opera House Covent garden. After leaving school he joined a small season rep company for 3 seasons and continued working and learning his trade. In 2004 he formed Little Gobbling Productions for a tour of A Midsummers Night’s Dream; he directed and played Pac for Merton Festival and continues to run the company, directing their 2023 filmed version of Tomas Middleton’s The Changeling (at Queens Collage Oxford). In 2012 he linked up with Victor Sobchak at the Lord Stanley where he acted and directed till the theatre closed, covering Shakespeare, Chekhov and everything in-between. Latest credits include: King Lear; Richard III; King Beranger in Exit the King; Vermendero in The Changeling. Chris is a Aikido instructor and holds a international yudansha grade of 4th dan.
-
Samuel Beckett
Writer
-
Victor Sobchak
Co-producer, Director, Sound and Lighting Design
Victor Sobchak
Co-producer, Director, Sound and Lighting Design
Victor Sobchak is the Artistic director of Theatre Collection. Victor has directed over 300 plays worldwide. His companies ‘Victor Sobchak’s Experimental Theatre’, ‘ActProvocateur Int.’ and Theatre Collection took part in over 40 international festivals (USSR, UK, Europe, Africa, USA and 13 Edinburgh Fringe Festivals). Victor was awarded ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ (London Fringe Report, 2010) Victor has written over 50 plays and adapted classical and modern prose (Chekhov, Yuko Mishima, Fitzgerald. Welsh, etc) for the stage. He met Catharine Humphrys in 2016 who performed in his adaptation of Nabokov’s An Invitation to a Beheading – Cincinnatus (Baron’s Court Theatre). Victor has lead workshops internationally – from Stanislavsky and Michael Chekhov to Grotovsky and Boal techniques. Victor has featured in many TV and Film productions: Jackal, Man Who Cried, Legendary, Topsy Turvy, etc and made more than 500 Voice Overs for films and documentaries (BBC, SKY, Cartoon Network, Universal Pictures and others.
-
Catherine Humphrys
Co-producer, Set Designer, and Poster Image Designer
Catherine Humphrys
Co-producer, Set Designer, and Poster Image Designer
Theatre includes understudy Maria Josefa/ensemble in The House of Bernarda Alba (National Theatre); Fanny Wilton/ Cover Ella Rentheim in John Gabriel Borkman (Bridge Theatre); Joanie in After All These Years (Brighton and Ventnor Fringe); Doctor in King Lear, Mrs Hawthorn in Hindle Wakes, Elizabeth Almond in The Heiress – all online during Lockdown. Understudy Miss Marple and Dora Bunner in A Murder is Announced UK No.1 Theatre Tour. With Triple C Theatre Co. (co-founded by Catharine, Cory Peterson and Julia Carey in 2012): Burlington Bertie in Ghosts in Greasepaint (Electric Theatre); Marmee/Aunt March in Little Women; Susan in Bed Among The Lentils; June in Way Upstream; Sister James in Doubt (all at Yvonne Arnaud’s The Mill Studio). Film credits include Mrs Peacock in Straight Out of Compton; Sylvia Pankhurst in The Independent Miss Craigie (at BFI March 2022); Lady Mabel in The Bone Witch; Tracey in Strangers; Customer in Bao Bao.
-
Natalie Hancock
Poster Designer