Siobhán Redmond to star in new production of HAPPY DAYS at Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Pitlochry Festival Theatre has announced that Siobhán Redmond will star in a new production of Samuel Beckett’s surreal masterpiece Happy Days, which will run at the venue from 18 September-10 October.
A new addition to Alan Cumming’s inaugural season as Artistic Director, the revival of Beckett’s iconic 1960 play will be directed by Roxana Silbert.
Happy Days is a hauntingly comic meditation on the human spirit, a renowned masterpiece that helped secure Samuel Beckett the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, and one that has lost none of its power since.
Winnie is buried up to her waist — and later, her neck — yet she refuses to surrender. With only a small bag of everyday objects, she fills the endless hours with routine, memories, and a fierce, almost defiant optimism. Nearby, her companion Willie hovers at the edges of her world, offering little more than the odd muttered response.
Is Winnie’s cheerfulness resilience delusion, or something in between? Stark, unsettling, and darkly comic, Beckett’s Happy Days becomes a haunting exploration of endurance, isolation, and the stubborn human need to keep going, no matter how tight the walls close in.
Playing the role of Winnie will be celebrated Scottish stage and screen actress Siobhán Redmond (Twelfth Night, RSC; Two Doors Down, BBC).
Director Roxanna Silbert said: "Samuel Beckett’s luminous Happy Days is a play of contradictions: biting and tender; profound and funny; epic and intimate. It's also very timely to explore how our heroine Winnie navigates her hopeless condition with relentless optimism. And so it is that I am thrilled to bring this brilliant classic to the iconic Pitlochry stage in Alan Cummings first season. A great play needs a great performer and I'm really excited to be reuniting with the extraordinary Siobhan Redmond to explore Winnie's resilience and humanity in this unexpectedly uplifting masterpiece."