Information and Guide to Anglo-Irish writer Samuel Beckett created and maintained in Dublin, Ireland
Beckett, Samuel. (1906 - 1989)
Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Critic, Irishman
A Samuel Beckett Resources website related to the life and literature of Samuel Beckett with listings of Beckett plays, poems and prose online in order to commemorate the centenary of Samuel Beckett's birth. It will have a specific interest in the Dublin aspect of the Irish playwright.
In April 2006 Ireland will experience a unique celebration of one of Ireland’s foremost writers, Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett.
Welcome from John O’Donoghue, T.D., Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism
I am very pleased to be associated with this web site introducing you to the Beckett Centenary Festival calendar. It has been produced by the Beckett Centenary Festival Committee under the steerage of the Centenary Council, and illustrates the many artistic endeavours that will share the Festival limelight, and cast further illumination on Samuel Beckett, Nobel Laureate and master of many genres. My Department is indebted to the Council and Committee, and the many organisations and partners that have worked tirelessly to ensure that Samuel Beckett remains prominent and relevant. I would also like to thank Edward Beckett for his enduring support.
The web site is designed to provide you with a comprehensive guide to the events that will unfold over the month of April 2006, and to showcase some of the event partners, whose programmes offer exciting insight into Beckett. It is a tribute to one of our greatest writers that so many of the disciplines he worked with during his very productive career are represented throughout the Festival. Whatever your interests, I trust that your curiosity will be sparked by the range and variety of the events, and that the diversity of the programme will encourage exploration into unfamiliar terrain.
The month of April 2006 promises many unique Beckett related events. I believe that this Centenary Festival once again affirms Ireland as a cultural destination of quality and note.
John O’Donoghue, T.D.
I not I - Nauman/Guston/Beckett
As part of its contribution to the Beckett centenary, the Academy has organised a major exhibition, curated by RHA Director Patrick T. Murphy presenting the work of two of America’s most important artists of the 20th century Philip Guston and Bruce Nauman together with three filmed plays (Not I, Breath and Act Without Words) by Beckett.
Six of the late paintings of Guston will be shown including Aggressor, 1978 and Sleeping, 1979 and four works by Bruce Nauman including the videos Clown Torture, 1987, Good Boy, Bad Boy, 1985 and Slow Angled Walk, 1968.
Education officer William Gallagher will organise special tours of I not I each Wednesday at 1.15 pm and RHA Director Patrick T. Murphy will give a guided tour of the exhibition to Friends of the RHA on 29 March, 6 pm.
Photo credit: Bruce Nauman, Clown Torture, 1987, 4 colour video monitors,4 speakers, 4 videotape players, 2 video projectors, 4 videotapes, dimensions variable. Collection The Art Institute of Chicago, Watson F. Blair Prize Fund; W.L Mead Endowment; Twentieth Century Purchase Fund; through prior gift of Joseph Winterbotham; gift of Lannan Foundation,1997. 162. Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York.
Date:
24/3/2006 to 1/5/2006
Price:
Free
Venue:
Royal Hiberian Academy, Gallagher Gallery
15 Ely Place
Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 6612558 ext 105
Web:
http://www.royalhibernianacademy.ie
Centenary Shadows: Photographs of Samuel Beckett by John Minihan
The National Library of Ireland will celebrate the centenary with an exhibition of photographs of Beckett taken by his friend, the Irish photographer John Minihan. Minihan and Beckett were friends, and John photographed him on several occasions in the 1980’s. Minihan’s portraits of Beckett are world famous. The photographs are particularly interesting as the writer was a reluctant subject. The portraits on show will include the well-known portrait of Beckett in Café Francais, Paris in December 1985. Also featuring in the exhibition are images recorded by Minihan during various productions of Beckett’s plays such as Beckett directing Waiting for Godot, performed at the Riverside Studios in London in 1984.
Date:
29/3/2006 to 27/5/2006
Time:
Mon–Fri: 10 am-5 pm; Sat 10 am-2 pm
Price:
Free
Venue:
National Photographic Archive
National Photographic Archive
Meeting House Square
Temple Bar, Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 1 6030374
Email:
Web:
Dublin City Council / Jenny Holzer Productions
To celebrate the life and words of Samuel Beckett, the world-renowned American artist Jenny Holzer is preparing a series of light projections that will transform the city of Dublin.
Since 1996, Holzer has illuminated buildings, mountains, rivers and monuments in Europe, North and South America with precisely chosen words of poetry and prose. Holzer will project her own selection of Beckett’s texts onto several landmark sites in Dublin city centre each evening: Beckett’s spare, tragic, comic and courageous language will flow over the shapes of buildings, land and water transforming the night and the city. For over twenty-five years, Holzer has presented her astringent ideas in public places and international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale, the Reichstag,and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao.Her medium is writing and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work. Holzer’s art and vision is a fitting compliment to the work and words of Beckett and the Festival is honoured by her participation.
Photo credit: Xenon for Rio de Janiero © 2006 Jenny Holzer / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / DACS, London. Photo: Beto Felició
Date:
30/3/2006 to 3/4/2006
Time:
Evenings
Price:
Free
Venue:
Dublin City Centre
tba
Country:
Ireland
Meeting Samuel Beckett by Brian Breathnach
An exhibition of paintings and a mixed media installation by Brian
Breathnach to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Samuel Beckett.
Breathnach remembers meeting Samuel Beckett in Paris in 1987 and snatches of their conversation on that occasion are incorporated into the work. Quotations from Beckett's writings are combined with visual images - both abstract and figurative - to chart the impact and influence of a personal encounter with the work and person of Samuel Beckett. The exhibition will be opened by Mr. Edward Beckett.
Date:
1/4/2006 to 30/4/2006
Time:
10-5, Mon-Sat; 11-5, Sun & holidays
Price:
tba
Venue:
Beckett on Film: A School’s Programme
An analysis of the ‘Beckett on Film’ series using screenings Krapps Last Tape, Film and Play, arranged by the Irish Film Institute Schools Department.
The Irish Film Institute will present a diverse programme of films relating to the work of Samuel Beckett, and co-ordinate a tour of the line-up to cinemas around the country—as well as provide a Schools’ screening and discussion forum.
Touring Venues:
Triskel Arts Centre, Cork: 021 427 2022
Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo: 071 914 1405
Queens Film Theatre in Belfast: 0044 28 9097 1097
The Eye Cinema in Galway: 091 780 000
Date:
1/4/2006 to 30/4/2006
Time:
tba
Price:
Venue:
Irish Film Institute Schools Department
6 Eustace Street
Temple Bar
Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 679 5744
Web:
http://www.irishfilm.ie
RTÉ Television has since its foundation demonstrated an ongoing commitment to and recognition of Samuel Beckett, both as a giant of literary culture and as an artist of his time. From Jack MacGowran’s 1966 performance in Beginning to End to the acclaimed 'Beckett on Film' series in 2001, through to the latest Arts Lives commission The Man Who Shot Beckett, RTÉ Television continues to celebrate one of the most outstanding literary artists of our time.
RTÉ Television will celebrate the centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth with a variety of programmes, both newly commissioned and from our archives.
The friendship between Irish photographer John Minihan and Beckett — which produced some of the most remarkable images of the writer — is celebrated in an Arts Lives documentary, The Man Who Shot Beckett.
On Monday 10 April, a special edition of The View presents… will see John Kelly host a panel discussion of the writer’s life and work.
RTÉ is proud to be re-releasing Seán Ó Mordha’s acclaimed documentary Silence to Silence which, with Beckett’s cooperation, traced his artistic life through his prose, plays and poetry, with contributions from Billie Whitelaw, Jack MacGowran, and Patrick Magee.
Also restored for the celebrations, Beginning To End features the peerless MacGowran in his one-man show, devised with Beckett and recorded for RTÉ Television in 1966.
For more information on dates and times of programmes see www.rte.ie/beckett or see the RTÉ Guide.
Date:
1/4/2006 to 30/5/2006
Time:
tba
Price:
Free
Venue:
RTE Television
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 208 3434
Web:
www.rte.ie/beckett
Cian McLoughlin: No Colour No Colour
Dublin based painter Cian McLoughlin presents a series of large-scale portraits based on the plays of Samuel Beckett. As Part of the Beckett Centenary celebrations in April 2006, the Festival Committee, in association with the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism and the Gate Theatre, are proud to present No Colour No Colour a collection of new work by Cian McLoughlin based on the work of Samuel Beckett. For the past 3 years McLoughlin has worked in collaboration with a highly accomplished cast of actors to produce a series of large-scale portraits centred on three Beckett plays. Lee Evans, Michael Gambon, John Hurt, Geoffrey Hutchings, Barry McGovern, Johnny Murphy and Liz Smith have all sat, in character, reprising their roles from staged productions of Waiting for Godot, Endgame and Krapp’s Last Tape. For more information and a complete catalogue of the work please visit www.cianmcloughlin.com.
Date:
4/4/2006 to 30/4/2006
Time:
Mon-Fri , 10 am -5.30 pm
Price:
Free
Venue:
Exhibition Hall, Office of Public Works
51 St. Stephen's green, Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Email:
Web:
The Beckett Centenary Symposium
Trinity College celebrates the centenary with a symposium that brings eminent scholars and artists from around the world to discuss the legacy and works of one of its most famous graduates. Beckett graduated with a first in Modern Languages from Trinity College Dublin in 1927 and was a lecturer in French the following year. He accepted an honorary doctorate from Trinity in 1959, and in 1986 agreed to naming the new drama department as the Samuel Beckett Centre, in honour of his 80th birthday. The Beckett Centenary Symposium will be a major international occasion. Occurring in Trinity College chiefly in the Samuel Beckett Centre, participants include eminent scholars and artists worldwide as speakers and panelists. It will also feature an academic conference of the Beckett Working Group of the International Federation for Theatre Research.The lectures: 'Beckett and Nothing' - Terry Eagleton, literary critic; 'Beckett, Feldman, and the New York School: Music after Beckett' - John Rockwell, dance critic, The New York Times; 'Watt Ho: On Being Taken aback by Watt' - Paul Muldoon, poet; 'Who Can Shave an Egg: From Speech to Silence in Mallarmé and Beckett' - Marina Warner, cultural commentator.
The panels: 'Beckett and Performance I': Fintan O’Toole (Chair), Frank McGuinness, Joyce McMillan, Fiona Shaw; 'Beckett and Performance II': Everett Frost (Chair), Walter Asmus, Pierre Chabert, Alan Gilsenan; 'Beckett and Ireland': Anna McMullan (Chair), Anthony Cronin, Seamus Deane, Declan Kiberd; 'Beckett and Religion and Philosophy': Nigel Biggar (Chair), Mary Bryden, Terence Brown, Minako Okamuro; 'Beckett’s Legacy': James Knowlson (Chair), H. Porter-Abbott, Linda Ben-Zvi, Enoch Brater, Bruno Clément, Steven Connor, S E Gontarski. The Symposium will include a concert by Crash Ensemble of music inspired by Beckett and a performance by the French actor Pierre Chabert of La Dernière Bande (Krapp's Last Tape), which was originally directed by Beckett in the 1970s.
Date:
5/4/2006 to 9/4/2006
Price:
EURO 30
Discounts:
Full Symposium: €30/15 conc. Day Ticket: 10/7 conc.
Venue:
Samuel Beckett Centre
Trinity College
Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 1 608 2407
Web:
http://www.tcd.ie/Drama
all this this here: Samuel Beckett manuscripts at Trinity College Library Dublin
Trinity College Library celebrates the centenary with an exhibition from its rich collection of Beckett's manuscripts and letters. The centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth provides an opportunity to celebrate the strength of TCD Library’s holdings in his manuscripts, correspondence and related material. The exhibition explores the following themes: Beckett’s undergraduate years at Trinity College, and his generosity to the College in the years which followed; significant acquisitions of Beckett manuscripts by TCD Library since the last major Beckett exhibition in 1991, including letters to Thomas MacGreevy, letters to Barbara Bray, and a notebook containing the first major working draft of Beckett’s Imagination Dead Imagine. The exhibition will reflect the literary style for which Beckett became famous – from the youthful early poetry to the austere later work such as the poem ‘What is the word’ from which the title of the exhibition is derived.
Image: Samuel Beckett with other members of the DU Cricket Club, 1925. (TCD DUCAC/Cricket/photo 19)
Date:
5/4/2006 to 30/6/2006
Time:
Mon-Sat: 9.30 am-5 pm; Sun (April-May) 12 pm-4.30 pm; Sun (June) 9.30 am-4.30 pm
Price:
Free
Venue:
The Long Room, Trinity College Library
Trinity Colllege
Dublin 2
Country:
Ireland
Web:
http://www.tcd.ie/info/library/
Beckett on Stage: Endgame
10 PERFS ONLY; preview 5th April.
Directed by Charles Sturridge
“Nothing is funnier than unhappiness”
In 1991, the Gate Theatre held the first Beckett Festival, producing all 19 of Samuel Beckett’s stage plays. It then toured to Lincoln Center in New York City in 1996 where The New York Post saw it as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a comprehensive overview of one of the major dramatists in the last half of the 20th century’. It was subsequently invited to the Barbican Centre in London in 1999. This April, the Gate will play a major role in Ireland’s celebrations to mark the centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth, producing a selection of Beckett’s stage plays in Dublin and will join forces once again with the Barbican to present these plays simultaneously in London as part of BITE’06.
Date:
6/4/2006 to 15/4/2006
Time:
8.30 pm
Price:
EURO 28
Discounts:
Preview €18
Venue:
Gate Theatre
Parnell Square,
Dublin 1
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 8744045
Web:
Beckett on Stage: Rockaby & Ohio Impromtu
Rockaby
4 PERFS ONLY
Opening Thursday 6th April at 6pm; preview 5th April
Directed by Loveday Ingram starring Siân Phillips “So in the end close of a long day went down in the end went down”
&
Ohio Impromptu
Directed by Nick Dunning
“With never a word exchanged they grew to be as one”
In 1991, the Gate Theatre held the first Beckett Festival, producing all 19 of Samuel Beckett’s stage plays. It then toured to Lincoln Center in New York City in 1996 where The New York Post saw it as ‘a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take a comprehensive overview of one of the major dramatists in the last half of the 20th century’. It was subsequently invited to the Barbican Centre in London in 1999. This April, the Gate will play a major role in Ireland’s celebrations to mark the centenary of Samuel Beckett’s birth, producing a selection of Beckett’s stage plays in Dublin and will join forces once again with the Barbican to present these plays simultaneously in London as part of BITE’06.
Date:
6/4/2006 to 8/4/2006
Time:
6pm
Price:
EURO €24
Discounts:
Preview €18
Venue:
The Gate Theatre
Parnell Square,
Dublin 1
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 874 4045
Web:
http://www.gate-theatre.ie
Gare St Lazare Players Ireland’s 'Access All Beckett' presented by Dublin Docklands Development Authority and The Irish Museum of Modern Art
Synonymous with the work of Samuel Beckett, Gare St. Lazare Players Ireland will present a unique series of Beckett's prose and drama entitled Access All Beckett. The Programme includes Texts for Nothing, Worstward Ho!, Enough and The Beckett Trilogy (Molloy, Malone Dies & The Unnamable).
In addition there will be the European premiere of Gare St Lazare's production of A Piece of Monologue directed by Walter Asmus and performed by Conor Lovett. Asmus, a long time collaborator and friend of the playwright, invited Gare St Lazare’s production of Molloy to his 'Beckett in Berlin' Festival in 2000 and, having directed Lovett in the role of Lucky in productions of Waiting for Godot on both sides of the Atlantic, he invited him to perform this intense shorter solo piece at a US Beckett Festival in 2004.
The Guardian on 'Access All Beckett': "Director Judy Hegarty Lovett and performers Ally Ni Chiarain, Lee DeLong and Conor Lovett succeed in finding the central voice in each piece... DeLong brings extraordinary depth and sympathy... triumphant and moving... Lovett eases his way through Texts For Nothing... as if composing the texts in performance. In fact it's hard to conceive of this as performance: he has a transparency that enables him to embody the narrative voice like a medium. With total command of the text's rhythms, Lovett's precision is astonishing."
Photo credits: Ally Ni Chiarain recites Enough by Samuel Beckett, photo Jon Tompkins; Conor Lovett in 'The Beckett Trilogy', photo Marilyn Kingwill.
Date:
6/4/2006 to 16/4/2006
Time:
tba
Price:
tba
Venue:
Dublin Docklands & Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham
Dublin
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 86 4037309
Email:
Web:
http://www.garestlazareplayersireland.comBeckett - A Centenary Celebration
As part of its contribution to the 2006 Samuel Beckett centenary celebrations, Dublin City Public Libraries is proud to be associated with the Department of Foreign Affairs in presenting this exhibition, developed for the international market by the Department, and now available to audiences in Ireland through collaboration with the Public Library system. The exhibition outlines the life and work of Samuel Beckett. It speaks of Beckett’s origins in Dublin and the influences which formed his early experience, giving us an insight into the educational and social background which he drew on for his literary output in later life. The exhibition follows the progression of the writer’s life, which eventually led him to take up residence in France, and to produce much of his work in the French language.Items from the collections of Dublin City Libraries will also be displayed in Dublin City Library and Archive, 138 - 144 Pearse Street throughout the month of April.
7/4/2006 to 28/4/2006
Time:
Mon-Thur: 10a m-8 pm; Fri-Sat: 10 am-5 pm
Price:
Free
Venue:
Dublin City Public Libraries
Dublin City Library and Archive,
Pearse Street, and other City Libraries
Dublin
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 674 4800
Web:
http://www.dublincity.ie/living_in_the_city/libraries/
Beckett 100: Flux Quartet (USA) and Carol McGonnell (Ireland)
The National Gallery of Ireland will host the critically acclaimed New York based Flux Quartet accompanied by the Irish clarinetist Carol McGonnell. The programme includes works by Philip Glass, Richard Barrett and Morton Feldman. In addition the quartet will arrange the theme from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden, a composition particularly associated with Samuel Beckett.
Free with ticket admission.
Date:
8/4/2006
Time:
3 pm.
Price:
Free
Venue:
National Gallery of Ireland, Shaw Room
Merrion Square West & Clare Street
Dublin 2.
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 1 663 3524
Email:
Web:
http://www.nationalgallery.ie
Beckett and the Visual Arts: Round Table Discussion
The National Gallery will host a round table discussion of Beckett's relationship with the visual arts. Chaired by Lois Oppenheim, Professor of Modern Languages at Montclair University, New Jersey, this round table will investigate Beckett’s relationship with the visual arts. The panelists are: John Banville, Dellas Henke, Charles Klabunde, James Knowlson, Rémi Labrusse, Breon Mitchell and Peggy Phelan. A limited number of tickets will be available. For further information, contact Riann Coulter.
Image credit: Avigdor Arikha, (b.1929), ‘Samuel
Beckett (1906-87), author and playwright’, 1972, National Gallery of Ireland, © Avigdor Arikha, 2006. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland.
Date:
9/4/2006
Time:
2:30 - 5:30 pm
Price:
EURO €15
Discounts:
Concessions €8.
Venue:
National Gallery of Ireland
Merrion Squqre West & Clare Street
Dublin 2.
Country:
Ireland
Tel:
353 01 663 3532
Email:
Web:
Street Theatre
A myriad of outdoor events will bring Beckett into the streets of Dublin as street artists and animataeurs perform Motion Images inspired by the plays. Look for them during the week of Beckett’s birthday, 10-15 April.
Date:
10/4/2006 to 15/4/2006
Time:
tba
Price:
Free
Venue:
Dublin City Centre
tba
Country:
Ireland
