I wonder if Beckett ever thought he’d inspire a summer school? Yes, the Samuel Beckett Summer School returns and runs from August 9th to 14th for those who consider deeply how long a pause should be…. ahem. There is also a series of Public Events that allow the great unwashed in on the fun, and you can find full details of these events below or on their web site here!
Samuel Beckett Summer School Public Events Programme
The Samuel Beckett Summer School is an annual gathering of the world’s foremost scholars on Samuel Beckett during a single week from August 9th – 4th in Trinity College Dublin. Now in its fifth year, the Summer School is gathering momentum and prestige worldwide as the ‘must-attend’ event for experts, academics and lovers of Beckett’s works. It features an exclusive programme of seminars and workshops for registrants, as well as an open programme of events for the general public, all set in the stunning grounds of Trinity College. As we prepare for the 2015 Samuel Beckett Summer School to begin, we are proud to present a varied public programme of events, open to all. Featuring leading artists, academics, and Beckett’s past collaborators, these talks and performances aim to give audiences a rare insight into the life and works of Samuel Beckett.
Public Event 1:
Quad – Lecture Demonstration with Pan Pan Theatre, Irish Modern Dance Theatre & Conor Houghton
Date: Tuesday 11th August, 8.30pm. One performance only.
Venue: Samuel Beckett Theatre, Trinity College Dublin
Tickets: €15/ €10 conc. plus booking fee. http://www.beckettsummerschool.com to book online.
Mysterious, geometric and symmetrical, Quad is an intricately choreographed movement sequence devised by Samuel Beckett. Written originally as a television play and broadcast in Germany in 1981, this is a rare opportunity to see a staged performance of what may be Beckett’s most formal work. Pan Pan Theatre Company works with acclaimed dance company Irish Modern Dance Theatre and with Conor Houghton, a reader in mathematical neuroscience at Bristol University and former Trinity College Dublin lecturer, to demonstrate, discuss, and explore this riveting work.
Public Event 2:
Beckett’s Poems: The European Caravan and Other Precipitates – A reading by Barry McGovern
Date: Wednesday 12th August, 7.00pm.
Venue: Graduate Memorial Building, Trinity College Dublin
Tickets: €10 plus booking fee. http://www.beckettsummerschool.com to book online.
Barry McGovern is recognized by many as one of the leading interpreters of the work of Samuel Beckett. He has played Vladimir, Estragon and Lucky in Waiting for Godot, Clov in Endgame, Willie in Happy Days and Krapp in Krapp’s Last Tape. On radio he has played Henry in Embers, Fox in Rough for Radio II and directed All that Fall. He has also played Words in Words and Music. He played Vladimir in the Beckett on Film Godot.
In 2012 he played Vladimir to Alan Mandell’s Estragon in Los Angeles and will play Clov to his Hamm in Endgame there next year. His two one-man Beckett shows I’ll Go On and Watt, produced by the Gate Theatre, have toured worldwide. He frequently lectures on, and gives readings of, Beckett’s work. His recordings of the complete Three Novels (Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable) are available from RTE. In August he will spend a semester teaching Joyce and Beckett at Notre Dame University in Indiana.
Public Event 3:
Eoin O’Brien in conversation with Gerald Dawe on Beckett and The Weight of Compassion & Other Essays – with a reading by Barry McGovern
Date: Tuesday 11th August, 6.00pm.
Venue: Graduate Memorial Building, Trinity College Dublin
Tickets: €10 plus booking fee.
Professor O’Brien’s The Weight of Compassion & Other Essays published by Lilliput Press will be the focus of this event.
Eoin O’Brien is Adjunct Professor of Molecular Pharmacology at the Conway Institute of Bimolecular and Biomedical Research, University College Dublin. He is a Past-President of the Irish Heart Foundation and is currently Chairman of the Irish Skin Foundation. He has published many scientific papers on hypertension research, and he is author of Blood Pressure Measurement and the popular ABC of Hypertension. Professor O’Brien has written an acclaimed study on the relevance of time and place in the writings of Samuel Beckett – The Beckett Country: Samuel Beckett’s Ireland and he published Beckett’s first novel Dream of Fair to Middling Women. He has also written books on literary subjects that include A.J. Leventhal 1896-1979: Dublin Scholar: wit and man of letters and three books on the artist and photographer Nevill Johnson: Nevill Johnson: Paint the smell of grass.
Public Event 4:
Lecture by Derval Tubridy at IMMA ‘“The unthought and the harrowing”: Samuel
Beckett’s Necessary Art’
Date: Wednesday 12th August, 1.00pm.
Venue: IMMA, Military Rd, Kilmainham, Dublin 8 (Johnson Suite)
Tickets: FREE event, but booking essential as seating is limited.
This lecture explores the intersections between Beckett’s writing and the visual arts and poses questions that are key to Beckett’s prose, poetry and performance which underpin significant moments in contemporary art. Derval Tubridy is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Visual Culture Goldsmiths, University of London. This talk draws on the IMMA exhibition by Stan Douglas and the presentation of Sam Jury’s All Things Being Equal in the Project Spaces.
No More Workhorse 