‘Happy Days’ are here again

A Beckett play about a woman buried up to her waist in a mound of earth may not be your cup of Orangina. But the Stanford Summer Theater production of “Happy Days” earned high praise from our reviewer and many others last summer.

Weekly critic Kevin Kirby wrote: “Those who attend expecting a conventional plot with conventional staging may be frustrated by Winnie’s static plight. But for those willing to accept Beckett on his own terms, there are ample riches to be discovered.” Kirby also had ample praise for Courtney Walsh, the gifted thespian who played Winnie and carried the bulk of the play as it explored humanity’s feelings of existential aloneness.

Walsh has a background in the law and, as it turns out, a few linguistic tricks up her sleeve. After SST’s production closed at Stanford, the troupe took the show on the road to present an unusual bilingual production of “Happy Days” in Montpellier, France.

Now SST is teaming up with Alliance Francaise of San Francisco to present two performances in the city: at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 (in English) and Nov. 15 (in English and French). Shows are in the alliance’s theater at 1345 Bush St; ticketing info is here.

Next up for SST: an Orson Welles festival starting in June. Artistic director Rush Rehm says the company plans to present Welles’ theatrical adaptation in blank verse of “Moby Dick,” along with a reenactment of his Mercury Theater broadcast of “The War of the Worlds.”