Review by Ann Bennett Sentinel Theater Reviewer

A new theater company has made its debut at the Actors’ Theatre in Santa Cruz, and if its opening show was any indication, we’re in for some really exciting work from this group. Autumn Stage Productions chose for its inaugural play one of Samuel Beckett’s most delectably weird scripts, the sly and clever "Happy Days," and the company’s presentation of this dramatically intellectual choice was a spectacular success. Beckett’s plays, written mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, are considered among the best of the absurdist theater movement of that period, and "Happy Days" is certainly absurd. But defining it merely as absurdist theater tends to place constraints on work that is much more than that. Beckett is a philosopher and a very skillful writer who uses symbolism and self-examination to portray a view of life that often verges on nihilistic. His characters usually appear to be hopeless and defeated, but in an odd and desperate way they also manage to be unexpectedly optimistic, determinedly cheerful and positive despite the overwhelming futility of their situation. If that sounds like an oxymoron, it is. But Beckett’s work is far from simple, and it defies easy description. His spare plays are agonizingly painful and at the same time engagingly clever and unexpectedly humorous; after a performance it’s easy to spend a couple of hours trying to figure out exactly what kind of impression the playwright intended to make, and what exactly he was trying to tell you — and you end up just as confused as you started. "Happy Days" introduces us to Winnie, a sort of well-preserved lady of indeterminate age who is buried, to begin with, up to her waist in a mound of dirt. Actually, it looks as though she’s in a barren sand dune on the Outer Banks. Her life is circumscribed by her entrapment, but her mind is not. There’s no explanation for Winnie’s predicament — she’s simply there. And she accepts her condition the same way; she doesn’t question it or challenge it, she’s just there. The play consists of her thoughts and rationalizations, a running monologue of her constricted but unquestioned existence. Occasionally she is joined by her equally strange husband, who provides a minimal tie to whatever her reality was before she ended up in this peculiar state. Director Robin Aronson has a splendid sense of the play’s quirks. She creates just the right feeling of abandonment, tempered by Winnie’s determination to live as though this inexplicable state of affairs was normal. The fine pace of the drama allows us to become aware of Winnie’s gradual decline into nothingness, all the while trying to retain some meager connection to this strange "reality" she has accepted. Obviously the play could not happen without a superb actress, and Suzanne Schrag is extraordinary as Winnie. Schrag moves from whimsy to pathos without a moment’s hesitation; her Winnie maintains a natural buoyancy and innocence as she considers her life and its constraints, and she holds on to the small rituals and patterns of normalcy as she disintegrates. Schrag is both endearing and enduring, and her Winnie is beautiful and frightening — and finally despairing. It is a triumphant portrayal, and one that will not easily be forgotten. Mark Hopkins plays the enigmatic Willie, whose few small appearances are delightfully mischievous and then, ultimately, stunningly serious. It’s not a big role but it gives the play its perspective. Lisa Joseph’s set design is a glaringly empty sand dune with nicely appropriate vegetation and an unforgiving horizon, which provides a perfect feeling of vacant nothingness. "Happy Days" is not a happy play. It’s a depiction of humans as isolated but enduring, and it’s an examination of our existence as both solitary and introspective. We may, as Winnie does, draw on humor and optimism to justify and explain our lives as they are — but in the end there’s no escaping the futility of it all. Winnie’s entrenchment at the end is, I think, more symbolic than absurd.