Judith Lucy hopes theatre debut not a colossal mistake

The beloved performer announced she was giving up comedy - pub gigs and big, stressful stand-up tours - in December 2022..

Just a few months later she found herself with the main part in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, generally regarded as an absurdist masterpiece.

The week before previews, Lucy openly admits she has no idea what she's doing.

"All I can do is hope that the MTC haven't made a colossal mistake," she told AAP.

Of course, in a way all this is classic Lucy schtick.

In 35 years of stand-up, her stock in trade has been a radical honesty about her insecurities and the ups and downs (especially downs) of her own life.

In Happy Days Lucy plays Winnie, a relentless optimist stuck in an existential crisis. She's buried up to her waist, then sinks up to her neck.

At the age of 55, learning a straight up theatre part has been an entirely new experience for the comic, and she's never felt so vulnerable as when delivering someone else's lines.

For someone who has spent decades playing a version of themselves, what is it like being immersed in a fictional character?

"Let's be honest, I'm not Meryl Streep, you know, I'm not Daniel Day Lewis, it will still be a version of Judith Lucy that you see on stage," she said.

So, not entirely method then.

But in recent weeks as the show has come together, Lucy has developed a new respect for actors and became uncomfortably aware of all the jokes she's ever cracked about them.

Then she found herself in workshops pretending to be a bird.

"That's not something I've done very often as a stand up comedian, I haven't looked at my own work and gone 'What animal am I being during this?'."

Bird imitations aside, Beckett's script is exceptionally precise both in terms of dialogue and stage directions, and ahead of technical rehearsals Lucy feels she has discovered a freedom within those constraints.

She suspects Beckett really was a bona-fide genius.

"If he was still around today, I'd say listen, I think you're onto something here, you might have a bit of a future Samuel."

Lucy says that even if you hate her performance, the play is worth seeing simply because the script is so extraordinary.

She's hardly an optimist, but least Lucy is confident she'll nail the comedic aspects of the part.

"If there's one thing I hopefully know how to do, it's deliver a joke," she said.

Happy Days is on at Southbank Theatre from May 1 until June 10.

Australian Associated Press