Beckett sa Chreig: Laethanta Sona (Happy Days)
By Samuel Beckett. Translated by Mícheal Ó Chongaile
Photo by Cormac Coyne.
Irish Times Theatre Awards 2022
Winner: Best Actress, Bríd Ní Neachtain.
Nominated: Best Set, Design Ger Clancy.
As usual when you begin working on a Beckett piece, or looking closely at one of his characters, you find everyone quoting from it referring to themselves. After a couple of weeks the Beckett quotes from the play become a part of the fabric of daily collaboration. This ability that Beckett has to make the specific resonate with a universal echo brings practitioners back to his work over and over again. To translate this into another language, becomes more than a translation of words from English to Irish.
Company SJ, Laethanta Sona. Bríd Ní Neachtain. Photo by Cormac Coyne
Happy Days is a play about human relationships, about the need for everyone’s voice to be heard by at least one other person. Winnie, buried up to her waist in the earth has several things that keep her going until the bell for evening sounds. She has her husband Willie who is hopefully hearing at least some of what she is saying, her bag which contains her ‘things’, her words, her memory and her stories. She ponders deliciously and distractedly on the meaning of existence as she trawls through her bag and or memory to occupy her throughout her day…
Company SJ, Laethanta Sona. Raymond Keane and Bríd Ní Neachtain.
Photo by Cormac Coyne
Rhythm and repetition are key to Winnie’s performance which is integrated with action, gesture and the fine arts. We found that we could only really find the truth in the piece by working together on the translation. We rehearsed immersed in the landscape and language of Inis Oirr. This project became a true collaboration between Samuel Beckett, Inis Oirr and Company SJ.
Written
by Samuel Beckett
Translated
by Mícheal Ó Chongaile
Directed
by Sarah Jane Scaife
Winnie — Bríd Ní Neachtain
Willie — Raymond Keane
Credits
Sculptor and Designer
Ger Clancy
Videography
Kilian Waters and Dan Keane
Costume and Prop Design
Sinead Cuthbert
Lighting Design
Sarah Jane Shiels
Sound Engineer
Chris Somers
Sound Recording
Martha Knight
Produced
by Tim Scott
Associate Producer
Nathanael O'Leary
Production Managers
Emma O’Grady
Lianne O'Shea
Stage Manager
Muireann Ní Raghallaigh
Costume Construction
Tara Mulvihill
Set Design Assistant
Aidan Fox
Graphic Design
Jura Afanasjevs
Photographer
Cormac Coyne
Documentation
Cormac Coyne, Kilian Waters, Martha Knight, Alice French
Funded by Arts Council Ireland
In association with Galway International Arts Festival & Dublin Theatre Festival
Supported by Áras Éanna, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Dublin City Council and The Irish Theatre Institute
Company SJ. Working on the set design. Photo by Cormac Coyne
