Glückliche Tage

In the organizer's words:

Happy days

by Samuel Beckett

"Happy Days": A tragedy, but also tremendously funny, and it is precisely here that the political dimension of Beckett's work is revealed. The audience witnesses a final hour. The cause of the catastrophe remains hidden, but one thing is certain: mankind admits defeat and accepts its downfall. Absurd theater, detached from space and time and the inevitability of an end, which explores the contradictory nature of human existence.

Winnie's bulging pocket repeatedly gives reason not to succumb to silence and stillness. Winnie also ecstatically takes note of Willie's barely perceptible signs of life. Anything is better than rotting away in silence. And so she meanders and monologues, countering the fact that there is no way out for the two of them in this desert landscape called life with an unconditional will to hope.
Despite the constant deterioration of circumstances, Winni, the main character, remains unwaveringly, even absurdly optimistic, because: "It will be a happy day again!"
The Irish writer Samuel Beckett was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969 and is considered one of the key figures of modernism and absurdist theater. "Happy Days", one of the most radical theater texts of the twentieth century, was first performed in New York in 1961 and deals with human survival by adapting to seemingly unbearable living conditions. Shortly after its premiere, the British daily newspaper "The Independent" included the play in its list of the "40 best plays of all time".

Barbara Stollhans studied sociology in Bielefeld and trained as an actress in Hamburg. After many years in a permanent ensemble, she has been working as a freelance actress in Frankfurt am Main since 2009. In addition to appearances in TV productions such as Tatort and Ein Fall für Zwei, she has made guest appearances at the Staatstheater Darmstadt and the Stadttheater Gießen, among others. She can be heard as a speaker in documentaries for ZDF and ARTE, as well as in various radio plays.

Winni: Barbara Stollhans
Willie: Matthias Lippelt
Scenic design: Isaak Dentler

Price information:

Ticket prices: Summer package: 4 tickets for the price of 55 € early bird discount (limited contingent) 20 €, normal tickets 25 €, reduced 22 €, pupils, students, trainees, Kiel Card 8 €