Note on the Schiller-Theater Werkstatt West Berlin 1971 Production

Abstract

The first production of Happy Days, directed by Alan Schneider, was at the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York (17 September 1961) with Ruth White as Winnie. Ten years later Beckett directed the German version of the play himself, at the Schiller-Theater Werkstatt (the smaller, studio theatre of the Schiller company) with Eva Katharina Schultz as Winnie. His Regiebuch was published, the Schiller notebooks were deposited in the Samuel Beckett Archive at Reading University (as, later the English Production Notebook) and there have been detailed accounts of the rehearsal process by Ruby Cohn (in Back to Beckett) and others. In 1979 Beckett directed the play in English (its original language) at the Royal Court Theatre, with Billie Whitelaw as Winnie. His Production Notebook, edited by James Knowlson, was published in 1985. There is therefore a large body of material available for those wishing to know how the author saw the play when he directed it on different occasions.