Review By Brian Spencer for the Register-Pajaronian

As its inaugural production, Autumn Stage Productions is presenting Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days." Beckett is the Nobel Prize-winning playwright who also wrote "Waiting for Godot," "Endgame" and "Krapp's Last Tape." These plays, along with "Happy Days," are essential components of the "theater of the absurd." Every theater student and many literature students have encountered these plays and others like them in their studies of the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. How fortunate for Santa Cruz, then, to be able to experience one of these plays first-hand and in a first-rate production. Autumn Stage Productions has not shied away from the difficulty of presenting a piece with only one main character and almost no action. In "Happy Days," the character of Winnie - played by Suzanne Shrag - is buried up to her waist in act one; her situation worsens in act two. The only other character is her husband, Willie - played by Mark Hopkins - who is almost invisible through act one and makes a somewhat ambiguous appearance in act two. The setting, by Lisa Joseph, is beautifully realized. A broad expanse of beach-like landscape sits before a backdrop of open sky and an endless vista. The detail work on the set is remarkable. The backdrop could have been more tightly hung, and there was one distracting lighting cable hanging down, but the overall visual effect was exactly what Beckett asks for. The lighting design, by Hopkins, is simple and direct. Nothing is allowed to intrude upon the extraordinary performance presented by Schrag. Direction by Robin Aronson is crisp and precise. She resists the temptation to overload the performance with fussy movement and simply lets the action build through the words, which are the central focus of the play. As Winnie, Schrag demonstrates why she is one of Santa Cruz's acting treasures. With nothing more than her upper torso - in act one - and a handful of nondescript and mundane props - except for a handgun that features ominously in the plot - Schrag gives us a complete character. Having accepted her fate, Winnie moves through her day, which is never interrupted by the darkness of night, in conversation with her husband, Willie, who appears to live in a hole nearby, and in reminiscences of times gone by. When her situation changes in act two, she is deprived of even her hands as a means of expression. It is here that Schrag shows us that acting is not merely movement, but can be confined to the tiniest of expressions. It is a tour-de-force that is a must see. As Winnie's husband, Hopkins creates humor without antics and pathos, through sound. When he is finally fully seen in act two, we are well prepared for the disturbing image he conveys. Hopkins gives an acting performance that nicely balances the central image created by Schrag. These two actors connect in ways that have nothing to do with the physical. The Autumn Stage Production's staging of "Happy Days" raises the bar for local theater to off-Broadway caliber. Audiences who accept the challenge of this play will be amply rewarded by this production. Autumn Stage Productions is making an auspicious beginning. Autumn Stage Productions continues its run of "Happy Days" at Actors' Theatre, 1001 Center St., Santa Cruz through Sept. 11. Show times are 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; there is a 3 p.m. matinee on Sunday.