Happy Days

It's been more than a week since I attended Cal-Shake's production of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, and like Cutting Ball Theater's Krapp's Last Tape from earlier this summer, I can't seem to muster the enthusiasm to write much about it.

Maybe Beckett's plays are just something I should intuitively know to avoid, like a rock concert at Konocti Harbor, but what I find curious is that these two performances are the only things I've attended since I began this blog that left me so indifferent that there was really nothing I wanted to say about them.

Patty Gallagher's Winnie (a last-minute replacement for Marsha Mason, who cancelled) was definitely a presence onstage and held one's attention throughout. But her performance and interpretation of the role made me hope Chekov's mandate about what must be done with a gun appearing in Act I would be carried out at the conclusion of Act II. It wasn't, and then it was time to go home.