Kendall shines in bleak masterpiece

When we first see Felicity Kendal she is dressed in a low-cut bodice, her hair a jumble of curls. She sports the disguise of a thick Irish brogue and is immobilised up to her waist in a mound of earth.

You would think this endearing actress, the heroine of middle England and best known for her light, romantic touch, wildly out of place in Samuel Beckett's bleak terrain. But it does not prove so.

In this Beckettian masterpiece Miss Kendal makes an interesting shot at the role of fiftyish, big-bosomed Winnie, to whom something terrible has happened.

Winnie, trapped in Lucy Hall's stage design, an earthy spiral disc whose coils consist of parched grass, wears a look of chronic bemusement. She resembles a weird garden ornament or a piece of living art in a modish Hoxton Gallery.

The sun blazes down from a cobalt sky. A loud bell blasts her awake. "Another heavenly day," Miss Kendal cries as she closes her eyes to pray. Out of sight, her almost wordless husband,Willie (Col Farrell), reads out the odd newspaper advertisement.

Post-war theatre has offered no more mysterious stage picture, or one which better captures the sense of menace that characterises our cruel times, than this image of a trapped woman, beset by fear and dread.

Samuel Beckett's Happy Days is a virtual monologue, a lyrical, black comedy portrait of someone sinking into the ground under a remorseless sun who valiantly never gives into despair.

The play which induces such a conflict of high emotions is about dying or old age's deprivations, about a woman who clings to love and cherished memories as salve for present pain. Winnie is infected with garrulous stoicism and the strange grace of someone who even as their mental powers fade insists on putting on a show of happiness.

Director Peter Hall does not establish as strong or sinister an atmosphere as his 1976 production with Peggy Ashcroft. But he aptly roots this Happy Days in the Edwardian Ireland of Beckett's childhood.

Miss Kendal with her meticulously made-up eyes and glistening lips looks rather too beglamoured. But she beautifully catches the narcissistic, comic and romantic elements of Winnie's character as she fills the blank day by exploring the contents of her black bag.