Happy Days – Birmingham Rep
Only on leaving the theatre are you struck by what a phenomenal feat of memory you’ve just witnessed. That alone justified Siobhan McSweeney’s standing ovation from a grateful, and perhaps slightly bemused audience, last night at the Birmingham Rep. Grateful because it is a stunning achievement. Dame Peggy Ashcroft, who had a fair crack at the part herself, describes the leading role, Winnie, as “one of those parts, I believe, that actresses will want to play in the way that actors aim at Hamlet - a summit part.” And bemused, because unlike Van Gogh whose work was misunderstand in his lifetime, but in time came to be embraced, Beckett’s work continues to be defiantly cryptic, mercurial and inaccessible in any conventional sense.
We are met with mounds of sands. Location and time unspeci...