BAM’s 2008 Spring Season opens with Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days— in the acclaimed National Theatre of Great Britain production, directed by Deborah Warner and featuring Fiona Shaw
BAM 2008 Spring Season is sponsored by Bloomberg
Happy Days By Samuel Beckett National Theatre of Great Britain Directed by Deborah Warner
Set design by Tom Pye Lighting design by Jean Kalman Sound score by Mel Mercier Sound design by Christopher Shutt Costume consultant Luca Costigliolo
BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St) Jan 8, 9*, 10—12, 15—19, 22—26, 29—31, Feb 1 and 2 at 7:30pm; Jan 12, 19, 26, and Feb 2 at 2pm; Jan 13, 20, and 27 at 3pm *press opening Tickets: $25, 45, 65, 75
BAMdialogue with Fiona Shaw Jan 10, post-show (free for same-day ticket holders)
“...a tour de force of wondrous invention and energy.” —The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)
Brooklyn, N.Y./Nov 26, 2007—Director Deborah Warner and actress Fiona Shaw—who riveted BAM audiences with the 2002 Next Wave Festival production of Medea—return with the National Theatre of Great Britain production of Samuel Beckett's existential masterpiece, Happy Days. Buried to above her waist and woken by a piercing bell, Winnie chatters away to her husband Willie (played by Tim Potter), who all but ignores her. She rummages in a bag, brushes her teeth, pulls out and kisses a gun, surrounded by blazing light and a scorched-earth landscape which, in the second act, becomes an even more futile post-apocalyptic scenario. The 1961 work is a darkly humorous look at the human condition.
Twenty-seven performances of Happy Days will take place in the BAM Harvey Theater from January 8 through February 2 (press opening: Jan 9). Tickets, priced at $25, 45, 65, and 75, can be purchased by calling BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or by visiting BAM.org.
In its 2007 run at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre, The Daily Telegraph cited “...brilliantly acted by Fiona Shaw, who delivers the dramatist’s potent stage poetry to perfection…wonderfully funny.” According to The Independent, “This production by Warner is a bracing new look at one of modern theatre's supremely eloquent images.” The Sunday Times raved, “One of the best Beckett performances I have seen.” The Observer said, “In a large leap of imagination, Deborah Warner and Fiona Shaw have made an epic out of a miniature. Everything about Warner’s production of Happy Days is big: the physical scale, the suggestion of global catastrophe and, above all, Shaw’s performance.”
The production has been touring internationally to great critical acclaim since its successful run at the Royal National Theatre in early 2007. It was the first modern play to ever be performed in the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus in Greece, and has since played to sold-out houses in Paris and Madrid.
About Happy Days Happy Days (1961) followed Samuel Beckett’s full-length works Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), and Krapp’s Last Tape (1958). Substantially a female solo piece—and his longest dramatic monologue—it preceded the subsequent female solo roles in Not I (1972), Footfalls (1976), and Rockaby (1981). In Beckett’s post-war work, the monologue became a critical device for his characters, who attempt to find order and routine amid increasing chaos. Happy Days was the first of Beckett’s works to break completely from scenic realism; in later work the playwright became increasingly interested in the idea of bodies fixed onstage or in space—as with the suspended talking head of That Time (1974).
Irish-born Beckett (1906–1989)—winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969—chose to write most of his work in French, with performance premieres mostly taking place in France, his adopted homeland. The playwright did, however, write Happy Days in English (and translated it into French in 1962—with the title Oh les beaux jours). The world premiere of Happy Days took place at New York’s Cherry Lane Theater in September, 1961.
Acclaimed theater and opera director Deborah Warner founded the KICK Theatre Company in 1980. For the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she began her long-time collaboration with Fiona Shaw in 1988, Warner directed Titus Andronicus (Laurence Olivier and Evening Standard Awards), King John, and Electra. Warner has directed productions for the Royal National Theatre (The Good Person of Sichuan, King Lear, Richard II, and The Powerbook); the Abbey Theatre (Hedda Gabler, which received Laurence Olivier Awards for Direction and Production); London’s Garrick Theatre (Samuel Beckett’s Footfalls); and has devised three installation pieces—The St. Pancras Project, The Tower Project (LIFT), and The Angel Project (Lincoln Center Festival). Warner’s production of The Waste Land with Fiona Shaw toured worldwide and won two Drama Desk Awards; her production of Medea (also with Shaw) transferred to Broadway following a sold-out run at BAM’s 2002 Next Wave Festival. She recently directed Julius Caesar at the Barbican, starring Ralph Fiennes, Simon Russell Beale, and Fiona Shaw. Warner directed the 1999 film The Last September, with Maggie Smith and Michael Gambon; and her opera credits include Wozzeck (Opera North), Don Giovanni and Fidelio (Glyndebourne), The Turn of the Screw (Royal Opera House; Evening Standard and South Bank Show Awards), The St. John Passion (English National Opera), and Death in Venice (English National Opera). She was named an Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2000 and a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2006.
Internationally acclaimed actress Fiona Shaw attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Her theater credits include The Good Person of Sichuan (London Critics’ Award for Best Actress 1990), Machinal (Evening Standard and Olivier awards for Best Actress 1993), The Powerbook and the title roles in the controversial Richard II (directed by Deborah Warner) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, all at the Royal National Theatre. For the Royal Shakespeare Company, her work includes Philistines, As You Like It, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Mephisto, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, and Electra (Laurence Olivier and London Critics’ Awards). At the Old Vic Theatre, Shaw has played Rosalind in As You Like It (Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress). Other theater credits include Julius Caesar at the Barbican, Footfalls at the Garrick Theatre, and The Waste Land (which toured internationally)—directed by Deborah Warner; Hedda Gabler (London Critics’ Award) at the Abbey Theatre and the Playhouse Theatre, London; and Robert Wilson’s Death, Destruction and Detroit III at Lincoln Center. Shaw’s films include Catch and Release, The Black Dahlia, My Left Foot, Three Men and a Little Lady, The Butcher Boy, The Avengers, The Last September, The Triumph of Love, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, and Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. Shaw holds honorary degrees from the National University of Ireland, the Open University, and Trinity College, Dublin. She also was awarded an Officier des Arts et des Lettres in 2000 and was made an honorary CBE in 2001.
Credits
BAM 2008 Spring Season is sponsored by Bloomberg. Programming in the BAM Harvey Theater is endowed by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
Major support for Happy Days is provided by Newman’s Own Foundation.
Leadership support for BAM Theater is provided by: The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., The Shubert Foundation, Inc., The SHS Foundation, and The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; New York City Council; Estate of Richard B. Fisher; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Ford Foundation; The New York State Music Fund; The Starr Foundation; JPMorgan Chase; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; Carnegie Corporation of New York; Time Warner Inc.; The Kovner Foundation; Booth Ferris Foundation; The Norman & Rosita Winston Foundation, Inc.; American Express Foundation; Forest City Ratner; The Howard Gilman Foundation; The Skirball Foundation; Target; Friends of BAM and BAM Cinema Club. Sovereign Bank is the BAM Marquee sponsor. R/GA is the BAM.org sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge is the official hotel for BAM. Sharp Electronics Corporation is BAM’s Consumer Electronics Partner. BAM Lounge Furniture Provider is west elm.
General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, BAMcafé, and Brownstone Books at BAM are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to Howard Gilman Opera House performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live nights on Friday and Saturday with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 8pm.
Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue; D, M, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue Train: Long Island Railroad to Flatbush Avenue Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.