Happy Days is the masterpiece of the absurdist playwright Samuel Beckett. The only characters are Winnie, who is buried in earth, and her husband Willie. Packed with meaningful situations and meaninglessness, the text continues to draw directors around the world. After winning the Toga Theatre Competition’s Excellence Award for Happy Days (Act Two) in 2016, director Yuta Hagiwara brings the play to Tokyo; the new production will be staged in the Ex Noguchi Room on Keio University’s Mita campus.
The Shinbanraisha common room (a.k.a. the Ex Noguchi Room) was designed shortly after the war in 1951 by Isamu Noguchi and Yoshiro Taniguchi. In 2005 it was redesigned by Kengo Kuma and relocated. Inside this strange “house,” floating amid the buildings of Tamachi, how will the physical setting align with the absurd language? What can the audience expect to witness there?