Photo Flash: HAPPY DAYS At The Guthrie

This intense and strictly concentrated two-character drama features an eternally optimistic Winnie inexplicably buried waist-deep in a mound of earth, clinging to her life of arbitrary routines and rituals. Her husband, Willie, appears from time to time and replies only occasionally to her cheerful chatter, a source of comfort as she remains ever hopeful that "this is going to be a happy day." With its vivid sense of the bizarre and a blend of humor and compassion, Happy Days represents one of the Nobel Prize-winning writer's finest works.

The play is minimalist, concentrated to the bare elements needed to make Winnie's resilience apparent in the stream of her thoughts and emotions, allowing the Irish playwright, poet and novelist an opportunity to offer a penetrating and uncompromising exploration of the human condition. As is the case with all of Beckett's work for the stage, Happy Days is an utterly spare and precise play, with every detail carrying the exact weight and degree of importance determined by the author.

Co-founder and artistic director of San Francisco's The Cutting Ball Theater, Melrose previously directed Pen (2007) in the Dowling Studio, and served as assistant director for the Guthrie's 2003 production of Othello. He leads an artistic team that includes Michael Locher (Set Designer), Christine Richardson (Costume Designer), Frank Butler (Lighting Designer), Michael Lupu (Dramaturgy), Martha Kulig (Stage Manager) and Meaghan Rosenberger (Assistant Stage Manager).

About the Guthrie
The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, production, education and professional training. The Guthrie is dedicated to producing the great works of dramatic literature, developing the work of contemporary playwrights and cultivating the next generation of theater artists. Led by Director Joe Dowling since 1995, the Guthrie opened a new three-theater home on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis in June 2006.

The Guthrie is located at 818 South 2nd Street (at Chicago Avenue), in downtown Minneapolis. To purchase tickets or season subscriptions call the Guthrie Box Office between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily at 612.377.2224 or toll-free 877.44.STAGE. For more information, or to purchase tickets online, visit http://www.guthrietheater.org/.

Photos by Michal Daniel