Happy Days: scenes of self-isolation

For two weeks, we are sharing Happy Days online, a new video project by Station House Opera, developed during, and about the lockdown. The film is by Ankie Krijbolder and Julian Maynard Smith (Station House Opera), two artists and ex-partners who decided to spend lockdown in joint self-isolation for reasons of health (Ankie, transplant patient) and age (Julian, 70).

Online artists’ talk on 20 October

Artists Ankie Krijbolder and Julian Maynard Smith (Station House Opera) were joined by Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso, Shubbak Festival’s Senior Programmer & Producer and Station House Opera collaborator, for a conversation about the making of Happy Days. Catch up on the talk below.

About the film

A man is in a house on his own during lockdown. He seems insubstantial, transparent, so to compensate he is joined by other versions of himself. There are up to nine people in the house, versions of the same person. There are good things and bad things: fights, bids to escape, hair cuts, clapping for NHS, dancing, self-inflicted torture. 

Happy Days evokes a need for companionship and security that is often taken for granted, but also the natural slipperiness of everyday consciousness. It speaks of the need for connection and intimacy at a time when our physical relationships with other humans will constantly be under revision.