This issue once again reflects the COVID restricted nature of our times. Performances are on-line but show signs of adapting to the restrictions of form. We feature reviews of five different approaches to the problem and interview actor Marty Rea about his experience in the live broadcast of Happy Days. New Beckett Society President, Laura…
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A novel event to mark the sixtieth anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s wedding to Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil is to be held in Folkestone, where the original ceremony took place. Running each day from 4-9 June, what is described as ‘an outdoor promenade event’ will include three specially commissioned works from Helen Oyeyemi, Rupert Thomson and Eimear McBride…
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The Samuel Beckett Society is delighted to congratulate its long-time member, friend and colleague Martha Dow Fehsenfeld on the award of an honorary Doctorate in Letters from Beckett’s alma mater Trinity College Dublin. The ceremony took place online in accordance with COVID restrictions for the first time in the University’s history. The occasions Public Orator,…
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The 2021 Beckett Brunch will take place on-line from Trinity College Dublin this Saturday, April 24, following its postponement last year, The bi-lingual event, founded and co-ordinated by DĂșnlaith Bird since its inception, has been held in Paris until now and has always aimed at attracting as broad an audience as possible. In keeping with…
Read MoreThe conference Beckett and Italy, originally scheduled for last year, will now take place virtually on 24-26 May from “Sapienza” Universita di Roma. It will feature keynotes from Enoch Brater, Annamaria Cascetta, Carla Locatelli, John McCourt, Margaret Pfister and Dirk Van Hulle, as well as a special showing of two films by S. E. Gontarski.…
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The death has been announced of Anne Atik, author and close friend of Samuel Beckett’s. Along with her husband, the painter Avigdor Arikha and her two daughters, Alba and Noga, the family were frequent hosts to Beckett in their home in Paris. Her book How It Was: A Memoir of Samuel Beckett (1991) recounts the…
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On 12 February, Cal Revely-Calder began his critique of the current state of Beckett studies by allowing readers of the Times Literary Supplement to drop their jaws at the bad behaviour that can go on at academic conferences. The essay made its revelation broadly in the name of âcareâ â care for the work of an author…
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Landmark Productions will broadcast Happy Days from the Olympia Theatre, Dublin on January 30-31, directed by CaitrĂona McLaughlin with SiobhĂĄn McSweeney as Winnie and Marty Rea as Willie. Here is an edited version of Stiene Thillman’s interview with Rea about the role and his engagement with Beckett. The full version and a performance review will…
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Clockwise from top: Katherine Wess, Nadia Louar, Jonathan Basile, and Brenda O’Connell As with all events in the recent calendar, the annual MLA convention has had to be reconfigured to accommodate the inability of attendees to travel and present. However, given that all papers will now be delivered remotely, there is a greater opportunity for…
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Inside this issue The second issue of the Beckett Circle to be posted in the time of pandemic bears the scars of the community’s endurance of uncertainty and loss. As performance, in its normal sense has disappeared, we hear from practitioners Sarah Jane Scaife and Cathal Quinn about their attempts to overcome the restricted environment.…
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