Glückliche Tage

By Samuel Beckett German by Erika and Elmar Tophoven With: Martina Guse, Udo Rau Director: Christof Küster Stage and costumes: María Martínez Peña

Winnie spends all her 'happy days' in the pile of sand in which she is buried. Only her upper body is still sticking out, but she is in good spirits, chatting with Willie, her husband, who lives silently beside her, reading the newspaper. Despite her fears and limitations, Winnie is determined to enjoy life.

In complete contradiction to her catastrophic external situation, Winnie actually appears to be the epitome of a happy person, who enjoys herself with all kinds of everyday objects from a handbag, hardly expresses any displeasure or dejection, rejoices in the most insignificant events and faces fate with unwavering optimism.

In the second part, she sinks even deeper into the pile of sand until only her head peeks out. Stay on top, she seems to say, always stay on top.
She has settled into the unknown, she lives her life in such a confined space and she is happy about the favors, the little help that comes from somewhere.
She perseveres.

Beckett creates a parable in which we witness someone overlooking the most obvious disaster and saying, "Oh, this is a happy day! This will have been another happy day!"