Staging Beckett: Constructing Performance Histories
Minghella Building, University of Reading, 4-5 April 2014
Staging Beckett’s Inaugural Conference, ‘Constructing Performance Histories’, focused on the history, documentation and analysis of Beckett’s theatre in performance in the UK, Ireland and internationally. The conference featured papers on productions of Beckett from across the globe, including Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, India, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, the United States and the UK. Topics covered Beckett and stage design, Beckett’s theatrical intersections with Pinter and with Shakespeare, staging Beckett in situations of censorship, or crisis and resistance from besieged Sarajevo to the Occupy movement in Zuccotti Park New York, staging Beckett beyond the theatrical frame, and performance histories and perspectives.
Keynote Lecture: Professor Brian Singleton (Trinity College Dublin), ‘Beckett and the Non-Place in Irish Performance’, 4 April 2014.
Practitioners’ Panel: ‘Staging Beckett Now’, 5 April 2014.
- Natalie Abrahami – Director of Happy Days, starring Juliet Stevenson at the Young Vic, London, 2014 and 2015
- Lisa Dwan – Actress in Not I / Footfalls / Rockaby at the Royal Court and Duchess Theatre, London, as well as a national and international tour, 2014-2015.
- Sarah Jane Scaife – Director of Act Without Words II and Rough for Theatre I for Company SJ in Dublin, Limerick, London and New York, 2013-2015
Staging Beckett: Constructing Performance Histories programme (PDF – 391 KB)
