Judy Hegarty Lovett of Gare St Lazare Ireland writes for Culture about their latest production, the latest essential installment in their 'very singular exploration of Samuel Beckett’s work'.
It’s been 5 years since Gare St Lazare Ireland performed in Dublin. Its hard to believe but we’ve been so busy making new work and meeting touring commitments. We’re delighted that in 2018 we’ve two new works both Beckett-related and both very, very different. In February we premiered our newest work, How It Is Part 1 at Everyman Cork (more on that later).
For over twenty years we’ve been embarked on a very singular exploration of Beckett’s work and with particular attention to the work that was not written for the stage. Our repertory of 19 Beckett titles has only two stage plays, Waiting for Godot, which we co-produced with Dublin Theatre Festival in 2013 and A Piece of Monologue which presented at Dublin’s Beckett Centenary Festival in 2006. Our repertory includes 11 prose works by Beckett as well as 7 radio dramas and a creation, Here All Night that features texts and music by Beckett as well an original score by Paul Clark and improvised fiddle by Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh.
Here All Night makes its Irish debut at The Abbey Theatre this month before embarking on a national tour, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland. We’re particularly proud of this work for many reasons. One is because it was more or less made with crowd-funding through a the generosity of individuals that had seen and liked our work. So it feels like it belongs to our audiences. Its been rehearsed and performed at Brighton, Paris, New York, Boston and London. Its continues to evolve and may not ever be ‘finished’. Its a hybrid of literature, theatre, classical and trad music, visual art and choreography. In that way its a collaboration with actors, composers, singers, musicians, an artist and a choreographer but more importantly its feels like its a collaboration with Samuel Beckett himself. Increasingly in his practical work while he was alive Beckett grew more and more open to collaboration; the great artist Giacomettti made a tree for a production of Waiting for Godot, Louis Le Brocquy designed the set and costumes for The Gate’s production, Beckett collaborated on an opera with the composer Morton Feldman, and on a silent film with the legendary Buster Keaton. In several of his radio dramas there is an invitation for a composer to write music as a character, a hugely generous act by any writer.
We never met Beckett, who had died just as we were setting out on our path, but having worked on his prose and plays for over 30 years its hard not to begin to feel a certain familiarity. However it was through composer Paul Clark and fiddle player Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh that this collaboration began. Both are from different traditions, but they are equally open in their outlook and are equally comfortable in collaboration with others. Irish artist Brian O’Doherty has been more than generous in sharing his work Hello, Sam with us and for the Abbey we brought choreographer John Scott into the mix. The singer Melanie Pappenheim and a choir of six female singers who have travelled from Boston and New York perform with actor Conor Lovett.
The other new work we’’re presenting this year is also a collaboration. How It Is is a rendition of Beckett’s 1962 novel How It Is which features Conor Lovett and Stephen Dillane working with Sound Designer Mel Mercier and directed by myself - like all our work it's produced by the amazing Maura O’Keeffe. Supported by The Arts Council and developed though a residency at Everyman Theatre, Cork it will perform in London in May 2018 as part of Culture Ireland’s GB18 Programme. We’re hoping of course that it will be in Dublin before long. Watch this space!
Gare St Lazare's Here All Night: The Sound of Beckett is at The Pavilion theatre, Dun Laoghaire on 27th & 28th April 2018, and on tour nationwide - more details here.
