Theatre Y Stages Beckett's HAPPY DAYS, Now thru 11/23

Theatre Y has announced their production of HAPPY DAYS by Samuel Beckett. Romanian director András Visky, Associate Artistic Director of the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj, stages the two-person cast featuring Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine and Evan Hill. The seldom done Samuel Beckett classic will be staged on a multimedia art installation designed by Hungarian intermedia and conceptual artist Péter Szabó. Tickets for HAPPY DAYS are available at www.theatre-y.ticketleap.com or by calling 773-977-7873. HAPPY DAYS begins previews tonight, October 14, 2014 (press opening is October 17 at 7:30pm) and runs through November 23, 2014 at Theatre Y's residency space at St. Luke's Lutheran Church (2649 N. Francisco, Chicago, IL).

HAPPY DAYS follows Winnie, a woman submerged in a heap of garbage first up to her waist and then up to her neck. Comforted by the occasional visits by her husband Willie, Winnie remains resolved to find meaning in her life and attain her "happy days" in Beckett's remarkably written tragicomedy.

I am acutely aware of the paradox I participate in day by day when I believe that I wish to live, as long as possible, but proceed to drown out the hours themselves." comments Artistic Director Melissa Lorraine. "Now, in addition to these timeless fears, my generation has the added layer of virtual immortality, the performance of a cyber self...a hall of mirrors to distance us further still from reality. Conceptual Artist Péter Szabó will bury the actors in their own digital garbage - an installation of their actual virtual graveyard. I believe that Beckett's Happy Days can be the liturgy with which we confront our fear of living. In this century."

The production team for HAPPY DAYS includes: Péter Szabó (scenic design), Kevin V. Smith (assistant director), Jennifer Roseman (stage manager), Katina Donoghuev(assistant stage manager) Sarah Jane Rennick (technical director), Erin Ohland (scenic artist) and Robert Eric Shoemaker (production manager).

Tickets are available online at www.theatre-y.ticketleap.com or by calling 773-977-7873.