Reviews

Happy Days by Samuel Beckett

jess_esa's review against another edition

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5.0

This play truly is my existential nightmare. Whether you take it as a devastating portrait of aging, a disengaged marriage, or a tender meditation on our daily routines and things we distract and amuse ourselves with, it will get to you. The world is haunting, and you feel trapped in the sand with Winnie just reading/watching. I think there is something lost in just reading it rather than seeing it, but if you can only read it, do!

katya_m's review against another edition

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Beckett surpreendeu-me. Com uma forma de representar a vida despojada de simbologia, acabou por criar uma obra que se fixa, e que fixa o espectador/leitor naquele momento. Dias Felizes funciona como uma espécie de técnica de mindfulness levada a cena.
No palco apenas dois personagens: Winnie e Willie, casal de meia idade, de costas voltadas um para o outro. A primeira enterrada pela cintura, ancorada à vida, ancorada ao espaço, ancorada ao palco, qual um Prometeu agrilhoado, é a heroína trágica por excelência. À volta, em "campo de erva queimada", tudo é luz crua e um saco "negro e grande" de variados objetos que compõem a vida do casal: pentes, escovas, espelhos que, no final do dia, retornam sempre ao lugar de origem como por magia, e, lá no fundo, um revólver que existe como sombra de um possível suicídio que nunca se concretiza (uma piscadela de olho ao absurdo de À Espera de Godot).

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WINNIE

Deixá-lo, não tem importância, é o que eu digo sempre: isso há de voltar... eis o que eu acho maravilhoso: tudo volta... (Pausa.) Tudo? (Pausa.) Não, nem tudo. (Sor riso.) Não, não. (Fim do sorriso.) Não completamente. (Pausa.) Uma parte. (Pausa.) Regressa, um belo dia, não se sabe de onde. (Pausa.) Das nuvens. (Pausa.) Eis o que eu acho maravilhoso.
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Winnie repete, em dois atos, as mesmas palavras, desfia as mesmas recordações - ou a falta delas; hipnotiza quem a escuta e vê através de pequenos trejeitos, hábitos adquiridos ao longo de uma vida que, percebemos, se fez dedicada a um homem. Por isso não é de estranhar que no final, quando já só restam as palavras, Winnie ainda estrebuche no buraco onde está enterrada (agora até ao pescoço!); Winnie resiste: novamente, Prometeu não lhe fica mal associado - ambos são rebeldes, resilientes -; Winnie não desiste de tentar reerguer pontes entre si e o homem que não consegue ver, mas que sabe ali.

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WINNIE

(...) o tempo é de Deus e meu. (Pausa.) De Deus e meu. (Pausa) Estranha expressão... (Pausa.) Poderá dizer-se? (Voltando-se um pouco para o lado de Willie) Achas que se pode dizer, Willie, que o tempo é de Deus e nosso? (Pausa. Voltando-se mais e mais forte.) Tu eras capaz de dizer tempo é de Deus e teu?

(Longa pausa.)

WILLIE

Era.


WINNIE

(Alegre, voltando-se para a frente.)

Ah, ele hoje fala... vai ser um dia feliz! (Pausa. Fim da expressão feliz.) Mais um dia feliz. (Pausa.)
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Dias Felizes, pelo número e rigidez de indicações cénicas deverá ser das peças mais desafiantes de trabalhar; a limitação física forçará atores e encenadores a uma abordagem psicológica do texto e a resoluções pouco usuais que no fim, decerto, só podem reforçar a força de Winnie e o vínculo entre ela, aqueles que a encarnam e os que a encaram.

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WINNIE

Ter sido sempre a mesma que sou hoje - e tão diferente daquela que fui. (Pausa.) Sou uma, digo eu: sou uma e a seguir sou a outra (Pausa.) Ora uma, ora a outra. (Pausa.) Há tão poucas coisas a dizer. (Pausa) Dizemos tudo o que podemos. (Pausa.) E nada é verdade, seja onde for (Pausa.)
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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition

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5.0

She decays into sands of time caught, struck in memories of happy days of past and the hopeless hope of a future that would resemble more to the past than the present; her hopes are of a really old bird who can no longer fly or even if it could fly it won't enjoy as much as it once did - and yet this bird looks up to skies and hopes; hopes like her too down-to-earth husband doesn't. Her surroundings like her body are just ruins of happy days of past, her hope is as depressing as her husband's pessimism and she wants to run away from it; she want to talk - talk, talk, talk herself out of it but with whom; her husband is no good at communications or may be he has just given it up as useless. And thus the two are struck in loneliness of married lives.

She is understanding or has, over the time, come to accept as the fate, her husband's inability to communicate. In their own way, they do care of each other and maybe in some depressed, degraded form of word, 'love' each other. She herself is unable to communicate her feelings. In fact, she no longer knows what she feels- does she want her husband dead? does her husband love him? does she love him? should she sing? should she dare hope?

She is scared of free time in which she may end up thinking about those things - and so she slows carry her routine activities - activities that do not involve thinking; routines she won't let herself break from -routine activities which are only religion .... and in her, in this woman crushed by time, one finds the meaning of meaninglessness of time.

Read it when you have a Disney movie at hand. Do not read it if you are middle aged housewife .... or are married ... or are human.

couuboy's review against another edition

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5.0

Is the misery always proportional to your ability to overcome it? Is it that, as Beckett shows so bleakly and convincingly, time after time: to be alive is to continually shift the goalposts of tolerable sufferance?

Well, things could be worse...(?)

luna24601_'s review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

bluelilyblue's review against another edition

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5.0

thank you samuel beckett i am now having an existential crisis in the library!

magireads's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

literaryinluv's review

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

tillygw's review against another edition

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challenging funny sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Beckett confuses and frustrates while retaining our compassion for a woman whose voice is trivial but is the sound of a fractured desperation for freedom. 

willthesecond's review against another edition

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3.0

Samuel Beckett was my first entrance into plays and playwriting and between his lines he has much to say that I admire. “Happy Days” has depth that borders on the nonsensical.