Theatre Review: Happy Days

PlayMakers Repertory Company opens its season in the middle of nowhere.

Though the character Winnie — played by company regular Julie Fishell — often let fly the joyous declaration that “it is going to be a happy day,” but the opening night audience did not concur.

The house was half-empty by the second act.

The absurdist play delves into issues of mortality, the monotony of daily life and the difficulty of self-identity.

But it seemed like Wednesday night’s deserters were not too interested in contemplation, missing out on half of a mostly winning production.

Working in traditional Beckett fashion, the production was decidedly minimalist.

In the center of a sparse set strewn with strings of hay and accentuated with cattails, Fishell is buried up to her waist in a mound of realistically crafted dirt.

Her husband, the downtrodden Willie, played by Ray Dooley, lives in a pitiful state and is rarely seen, sporadically answering his wife’s laments.

Winnie awakes every day to the furious ringing of a bell — a repetitive blast that punctuated the evening.

Fishell’s character ceaselessly rants and ruminates to herself for more than 90 percent of the lines.

With her physical movements completely limited from the waist down, her powerful performance was one of finesse.

With timely uses of scattered props, her expressions shifted between anxiety and joy, moving a heady plot ever-forward by herself.

Fishell teased her audience with the possibility of suicide, occasionally kissing a revolver.

The majority of the second act features only Fishell’s head above ground — a head that cries, screams and finally pleads with God.

As the sole focal point of the production, Fishell’s performance was far more than admirable.

But when Willie finally appears fully clothed in the play’s closing moments, the show transformed from a thought-provoking metaphysical exploration into a spectacle of emotion.

Mournfully climbing Winnie’s mound, Dooley’s final staging brought thought and emotion together.

As he watches his wife slowly disintegrating, he brings the play to a painful close — an ending that half the audience surely lost in their flight from a powerful opening production of PlayMakers’ ambitious season.

artsdesk@unc.edu.