„Happy Days” – Master Performance of Maja Komorowska – at the 30th Festival

On 16 March, at the 30th International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant, we presented Master Performance of Maja Komorowska – „Happy Days” by Samuel Beckett, directed by Antoni Libera. It was the idea of Ewa Pilawska, the festival’s artistic director, to honour Maja Komorowska, one of the most outstanding Polish actresses who played several times in Łódź at International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant (among others in spectacles directed by Krystian Lupa and Zbigniew Zapasiewicz). The spectacle was received with a long standing ovation.

The spectacle „Happy Days” shows how our small events, apparently trivial rituals repeated every day, which build our everydayness. And this everydayness builds our life that little by little sucks us just like a mound, metaphorically, in which Winnie is buried. First waist-deep, then up to the neck... Next stage is only a matter of time…

Maja Komorowska created her role according to the score written by Beckett but she gave the play a strong, individual character. Though the spectacle expresses fully the attitiude of Backett, who – as Libera wrote – „was the man for whom existence, in its rule, was the source of ineffable torment”, Maja Komorowska gave it light and clear message.

During a meeting after the spectacle which lasted for almost an hour (the meeting was moderated by Jacek Wakar) Komorowska emphasized that it was the most important thing „to thrive” while working on the character of Winnie. Our everydayness consists of small (often absurd) events, repetition of sentences, convincing ourselves that this is going to „a happy day”. We get sucked in the mound deeper and deeper and it will eventually devour us but if we „thrive”, if we try, we give some sense and value to our life and in this way we may seek happiness. Komorowska pointed out that she worked on Beckett’s play with Erwin Axer who said that the author had put only pessimism and tragedy in his works and it is necessary to find a way how to realize them. And that is why Komorowska had an idea to play „Happy Days” according to Beckett but with happiness. If we assume our life is a tragedy, what else can we do than to smile and try to find brightness?

The festival’s spectacle was presented in The Gustaw Holoubek Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw, we went there together from Łódź. Thank you for this masterly and metaphysical night!

Maja Komorowska is an outstanding theatre, film and TV actress and a pedagogue. She made her debut in 1960 and soon after that she joined Theatre of 13 Rows found by Jerzy Grotowski; later she co-operated with him in the period of Laboratorium Theatre in Wrocław. Then she joined Współczesny Theatre in Warsaw (till these days). She played in films directed by Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Wajda, Istvan Szabo and in theatre spectacles directed by Erwin Axer, Maciej Englert, Krystian Lupa.

She has received many awards and distinctions, she was decorated with Gloria Artis Gold Medal and the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta „for her outstanding contribution to national culture, for her achievements in art and pedagogical activity”. In 2024 Komorowska turns 87. She is one of the most outstanding artists considered the example of acting and the authority in this field.

 

The Gustaw Holoubek Dramatyczny Theatre in Warsaw
Samuel Beckett
„Happy Days”
Translated and directed by Antoni Libera
Stage design: Ewa Starowieyska
Assistant to the director: Barbara Zając
Assistant to the stage designer: Anna Maria Klikowicz
Sound: Dariusz Kamiński
Light: Tomasz Burzyński
Consultation on stage design: Małgorzata Grabowska-Kozera
Cast: Maja Komorowska, Adam Ferency

Photos Maciej Zakrzewski
Photos of the spectacle K. Bieliński