The play by S. Beckett’s “HAPPY DAYS”
Director – BIRUTE MAR
Asisstant Director – RIMAS TUMINAS
Costume Designer – JOLANTA RIMKUTE
Music Composer – ANTANAS KUCINSKAS
Performed by BIRUTE MAR as Winnie
Duration – 1 hour
Translated from French to Lithuanian language by DOVYDAS JUDELEVICIUS
The performance was previously created and shown on the Small Stage of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre. The premiere of the renewed performance at the Solo Theatre was in 2018.
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The production is performed in Lithuanian, Russian or English language
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The woman, Winnie, is alone in the wilderness. She cannot move any more as her legs are covered in dirt. There are a few things left: the big umbrella and her old handbag which are the memories of her passed life. No human being is around in this wilderness…
The woman talks and then sometimes she stops whilst looking at the audience and wondering that somebody is still looking at her. Time, she thinks, does not pass. The words are only the sounds in the sand and in the wilderness.
Winnie’s life is a dream of sinking into a sand…
Birute Mar:
“This performance is not just the presentation of Beckett’s play. I was concerned for the protagonist Winnie as well as the flow of her thoughts and her long sinking into the sand; the desperate attempts of this loving, naive, weak yet smart person to kill time until the bell rings fascinated me. I treated the theme as a brilliant metaphor of life that provoked me to move away from the play – though preserving its scenes and atmosphere – and to play on the situation, transforming into Winnie and trying to grasp her illogical logic.
This situation provides a wonderful acting material allowing the actress to evaluate her life experience and contemplate the closeness of death under a mask of Winnie.
Beckett’s Winnie embraces all the aspects of human being: loss, joy, strong will, foolishness, carefulness, attachment, loneliness, the experience of old and young age.
And one more thing that I had never came across is the absolute uncertainty: “What will happen tomorrow? What would I be like in the next scene?” The play is beautiful and mysterious like a piece of poetry. It doesn’t let you go.”
From Press Reviews
“The theatrical mastery of the actress is amazing. Her perfect technique and skilful use of the voice and gestures stress the personality and the power suggestion of the actress. /…/ Her youth intermingled with her original subconscious maturity and her clairvoyant knowledge of the destiny of a human being, the Lithuanian actress reminds of Gelsomina’s character from LA STRADA by Fellini.”
Jaroslaw Kylian. Actor Samojednie (Dialog Nr.3, 2000, Poland)
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“It seems that the character of Winnie played by Birute Mar develops from the scenery and vice versa. That metabolism of the matter and living being creates a capacious metaphor of a lonely individual, and at the same time, renders the character concrete and gives an opportunity to draw closer to its axis of existence.”
“The Actress Created a Refined Metaphor for a Lonely Human Being” by Inga Samuolyte (Lietuvos Rytas, Lithuania, 1998)
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“The spiritual culture of the performance undoubtedly corresponds to the level of high theatrical culture. Birute Mar’s Winnie rolls the spectators into her magic ball and Winnie’s soul gradually emerges in all its beauty. A great hill, having been transformed into a miniature music box with a whirling doll, sinks into the kingdom of death or a beautiful dream.”
Daiva Sabaseviciene. “Moterys teatre” (Women in Theatre) (Krantai Nr.2, Lithuania, 1999)
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“She looks like a rag doll, yellow and forgotten, up to her waist imprisoned in her puffy skirt. We see only the upper part of the woman’s body. She stretches a little, runs her hand through her hair and makes a helpless gesture – a deliberate protest until the stiffness of her lower part paralyses her whole body.
Birute Mar shows the state of prolonged decay. The silently uttered words develop into an incessant talking to oneself. The actress’ body language also reflects this inner state. The look of her pale eyes and her facial expressions are the means she is using to convey the resignation of a person who is tired of life. The way the actress performs sharpens the senses and every detail becomes meaningful in this space-filling emptiness.”
“The faded spirit” by Ruth Bender (Kieler Nachrichten, 1999, Germany)
Awards
II Prize Winner at International Monodrama Festival “I”, Minsk, Belarus, 1998
Nomination for The Best Young Artist at the Lithuanian Year Awards, 1999
Prize Winner at International Monodrama Festival “Monocle”, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1999
1st prize at International One Actor Festival, Kishinev, Moldova, 1999
Grand Prix at International Monodrama Festival “Thespis”, Kiel, Germany, 1999
Jury prize for Poetic Interpretation of S. Beckett’s Mystery” and Moscow critics and journalists’ prize at International One Man Show Festival, Moscow, Russia, 1999
1st prize for Masterful Interpretation of Absurd Drama at International Monodrama Festival “Vidlunia”, Kiev, Ukraine, 2000
Award for Best Actress at International Theatre Festival “Tempus Art”, Kosice, Slovakia, 2002
Wroclaw City Award at International Theatre Festival “Wrostja”, Wroclaw, Poland, 2004 (for the solo performances: “LOVER”, “ANTIGONE” and “WORDS IN THE SAND”)
Award for the Best Actress at International Chamber Theatre Festival “Ludi”, Oriel, Russia, 2014
International Festivals and Tours
International Performing Arts Festival, Aizu, Japan, 1998
SPACE 21 Gallery, Guest Performance, Tokyo, Japan, 1998
II International Monodrama Festival “I”, Minsk, Belarus, 1998
International Monodrama Festival “MONOCLES”, St. Petersburg, Russia, 1999
International Chamber Theatre Festival “RIBA”, Klaipeda, Lithuania, 1999
International Odin Theatre Summer Festival, Holstebro, Denmark, 1999
International ONE MAN SHOW Theatre Festival, Kishinev, Moldavia, 1999
International Monodrama Festival „THESPIS 1999“, Kiel , Germany, 1999
IV International Monodrama Festival, Moscow, Russia, 1999
Petrozavodsk State Drama Theatre, guest performance, Russia, 1999
I International Monodrama Festival “VIDLUNIA”, Ukraine, 2000
International Theatre Festival “HOMO ALIBI”, Riga, Latvia, 2000
International Theatre festival, Irkutsk, Russia, 2000
“FETE DU COMEDIEN” International Theatre Festival, Geneve, Switzerland , 2000
International Monodrama Festival „Wrostja“, Wroclaw, Poland, 2000
Warszawa Small Theatre, guest performance, Poland, 2000
Festival Intercontinental de Teatro por Las Culturas del Mundo,Cd.Victoria, Mexico, 2001
International Theatre Festival “Independent Theatre Calls for Mongolia“, Ulan Bataar, Mongolia, 2001
European Women Theatre Festival, Tornio- Haaparanta , Finland, 2001
TEMPUS ART 2002 International Festival of Alternative Theatres, Roznava, Slovakia, 2002
International Theatre Festival KIEV TRAVNEVYJ, Kiev, Ukraine, 2003
International Theatre Festival THEATRE CONFRONTATIONS, Lublin, Poland, 2003
International Monodrama Festival, Fujaira, United Arab Emirates, 2003
International Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts, Jordan, 2004
Wroclaw International Monodrama Festival “Wrostja 2004”, Poland, 2004
Theatre “Na Basseinoi”, guest performance, Kaliningrad, Russia, 2005; 2006
International Theatre Festival “Torunskie spotkania teatrow Jednego Aktora”, Torun, Poland, 2006
International One Actor’s Festival, Kaliningrad, Russia, 2011
International Monodrama Festival, Teatr Polski, Warsaw, Poland, 2012
International Monodrama Festival “Atspindys”, Visaginas, Lithunia, 2013
International Chamber Theatre Festival “LUDI” (“PEOPLE”), Oriel, Russia, 2014
International Monodrama festival “Wrostja”, Wroclaw, Poland, 2014
International Monodrama festival “Armmono”, Yerevan, Armenia, 2014
International Monodrama Festival “Wrostja”, Wroclaw-Valbrzych, Poland, 2014
International Chamber Theatre Festival “Sankryza”, Druskininkai, Lithuania, 2015
International Teatre Forum “SOLO. Meetings of One Actor Theatre”, Olsztyn, Poland, 2016
International Monodrama Festival, Kuwait City, Kuwait, 2019
