Latest news with #Godot
Winnipeg Free Press
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Local cast delivers bleak, brilliant Beckett classic
A recurring line that runs like a leitmotiv through Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece Waiting for Godot is: 'What do we do now?' Well, in this case, not much of anything, other than ponder existential questions regarding happiness, love, loneliness and God, not to mention the frailties of the hopelessly mortal, fallible human condition itself. Shakespeare in the Ruins launched its second show of its summer season Friday night, with a rare local live production of Waiting for Godot, performed al fresco among the ruins at Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Vladimir (Arne MacPherson, left) and Estragon (Cory Wojcik) bicker and commiserate while waiting for Godot. The intimate 150-minute show (including intermission), ably directed by SIR artistic director Rodrigo Beilfuss, is performed in repertory with the company's ongoing mainstage show, Macbeth. Godot has puzzled and perplexed audiences ever since its 1953 première with its simple story about two seemingly homeless men waiting endlessly for the mysterious title character. Beckett's enigmatic narrative teems with non-sequiturs and mundane observations, in turn punctuated by snappy wordplay and the occasional, heartbreaking zinger that pierces the tragicomedy's lighter moments like a rapier. It's also not exactly a plot-driven drama, relying instead on strongly forged characters and their fleshed-out relationships as they form and then fall apart. Local thespians Arne MacPherson as Vladimir (Didi) and Cory Wojcik as his long-suffering pal Estragon (Gogo) prove a well-matched team, dressed in costume designer Anika Binding's ragtag suits and bowler hats, as they spar and bicker, bare their souls and ultimately cling to each other. Set/props designer Lovissa Wiens creates a barren landscape, including a deliciously industrial 'tree' wrapped in chicken wire and brambles, with cast-off shoes and junkyard garbage bags — even a broken TV set — strewn about the edges of the monastery, creating a desolate playground of decay. MacPherson — a founding member of SiR who dazzled as the title character during last year's production of Iago Speaks — compels as the duo's 'thinker,' although his matter-of-fact, often more rapid-fire vocal style, especially during his repeated references to Godot, invariably dilutes the absurdity of his portrayal. While it all boils down to personal taste, Godot — a mysterious, Oz-like figure — should be addressed with more solemnity and even reverence to create greater subtext, as well as a more pronounced schism between stark reality and dreamy imagination, the gap between what is and what can be in a world of bleakness. Despite this artistic choice, however, one of his final, blink-and-you-miss it lines, 'Tell (Godot) that you saw me, and that you saw me,' packs an existential punch of self-identity and validation; it's one of the play's most resonant themes — if not the very point of it all. For his part, Wojcik crafts a stumbling, carrot-loving tramp with the heart of a poet who gnaws on chicken bones and frets about such physical needs as sleep and comfortable boots. His razor-sharp timing and agile inflection help him toss off such salient lines as 'We are all born mad; some remain so,' as well as ruing 'Nothing to be done,' a key sentiment. Tom Keenan (King Duncan, witch and porter in Macbeth) crafts a powder-keg Pozzo, ready to blow, ferociously cracking his riding whip when he burst onto the stage with his battered, tethered slave, Lucky (Liam Dutiaume, marking his professional debut) midway through Act I. His compelling, volatile portrayal immediately pumps the show with larger-than-life theatricality, his declaration, 'I am Pozzo,' thundering across the ruins as he stands atop a large Tyndall stone block. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Cory Wojcik as the bootless Estragon A special bravo to Dutiaume for a brilliant, less-is-more rendering of his ironically named, white-wigged zombie, his sunken eyes transfixed as he dutifully obeys Pozzo's barked commands. The actor, also appearing as Malcolm and Witch in Macbeth, nails Lucky's big speech (following his shuffling dance), proving to Vladimir and Estragon his ability to 'think' by delivering a staccato word salad of nonsensical imagery, pithy bon mots and guttural utterances. Beilfuss's thoughtful blocking (which at times is overly static, as when Pozzo is seated on his stool for far too long) adds texture to his overall delivery, seeing Lucky climb onto the stone block to spew out words directly to the audience. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. His pacing might have been quicker — a tall order, to be sure — to convey Lucky's rising desperation, although kudos are owed to the actor for fearlessly attacking Beckett's knotty text. The show highlights the first joint professional stage appearance by Wojcik and his actor son Mackenzie (Witch in Macbeth). The latter makes every moment count as the goat-herder 'Boy,' delivering messages from Godot, his spot-on conviction and guileless innocence proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The play itself ends not with a bang, but a whimper. There is no resolution; Godot never arrives. While some pundits surmise that Beckett's play is about inertia, with a chaser of pre-supposed meaningless of life, Estragon's potent Act II question to Vladimir — 'Do you think God sees me?' — refutes the perennial argument that Godot is fundamentally a secular play. In the end, this cryptic conundrum will never be answered, and will continue, as it has for the last 73 years, to elicit a prism of interpretation by all those who see it. But that's probably just how its stable of all-too-human, flawed characters, as they grit their teeth and grapple with 'life,' would have liked it.
Axios
11-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Inflation report suggests damage from Trump's tariffs isn't guaranteed
A run of better-than-expected indicators — including Wednesday's inflation report — so far point to a strikingly resilient economy. Why it matters: Those waiting for signs of a tariff-wrecked economy will have to keep waiting. Economists anticipate President Trump's policies, particularly those related to trade, will weaken growth and raise consumer prices. But how, when, or even if looks more uncertain than ever. State of play: Consider the economic news flow in recent days. The May Consumer Price Index came in cooler than expected, extending a monthslong streak of easing price pressures. U.S.-China trade tensions appear to have simmered down, with Trump touting a deal that will unlock critical minerals for U.S. manufacturers. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers Wednesday that U.S. tax receipts in May came in almost 15% above the previous year, despite cuts at the Internal Revenue Service. Stock prices are approaching record levels, less than 2% below the all-time high reached in February. The intrigue: The Wall Street consensus is that a tariff shock will weaken the economy and put upward pressure on inflation. Economists are just waiting for something to happen, much like the two characters in the play "Waiting for Godot." The huge question is whether the anticipated slowdown — Godot — shows up. What to watch: Many businesses are running down supplies brought in from overseas before tariffs took effect, shielding consumers from price hikes. Once that inventory dries up, retailers will have to face tough choices about how much to pass along to customers. Those front-loading effects have created an economic mirage of sorts, resulting in a demand surge that isn't expected to stick. Last week's employment report signaled some underlying weakness in the job market, including a surge of workers leaving the labor force. It's too soon to tell whether the exodus was a one-off. Yes, but: That doesn't mean there aren't warning signs out there. A bond market sell-off in recent weeks signaled a reversal of norms that prevailed in the 2010s: investors demanding more compensation to hold longer-term debt — a phenomenon partly ignited by higher deficits signaled by Trump's signature tax legislation. Interest rates are below peak levels seen at the height of the inflation shock, but they're still high enough to be considered restrictive on economic activity by many Fed officials. It's unclear how that extended weight will ripple through the economy. What they're saying: "Tariff-driven price increases may not feed through to the CPI data for a few more months yet, so it is far too premature to assume that the price shock will not materialize," Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, wrote in a note. The bottom line: The economy has somewhat painlessly adjusted to huge shocks in recent years, defying naysayers and recession fears.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Hopes For Fed Rate Cuts Are Fading
The chances that the Federal Reserve will cut its influential interest rate in the next few months have diminished as data on the labor market has shown hiring staying resilient. Financial markets now expect the Fed to hold rates steady at least through July, whereas a summer rate cut was considered likely last month. Job losses induced by tariffs would pressure the Fed to cut rates. Some forecasters expect the job market to sour later in the days, waiting for the Federal Reserve to lower its benchmark interest rate is a bit like waiting for Godot: the arrival date for the long-anticipated monetary policy move keeps getting pushed into the markets scaled back their expectations for rate cuts again last week after a report on job growth showed the labor market staying unexpectedly healthy in May. The labor market's resilience takes some pressure off the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to boost the economy and prevent a severe increase in unemployment. On Monday, investors seemed sure that the jobs report indicated the central bank would not cut the federal funds rate soon, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool, which forecasts rate movements based on fed funds futures trading data. Investors were pricing in an 83% chance the Fed's policy committee would hold its rates steady in the June and July meetings. That's up from 76% a week ago and 40% a month officials themselves have indicated they're in no hurry to chop interest rates, which would put downward pressure on interest rates on all kinds of loans. In contrast, President Donald Trump has repeatedly demanded the Fed cut rates: he's asked officials to lower rates by an entire percentage point, rather than their usual quarter-point increments, and criticized the central bank for not cutting rates outlook for interest rates has changed dramatically since late 2024 when Fed officials went on a rate-cutting spree, lowering the key fed funds rate a percentage point over three meetings. In January, the Fed declined to cut rates again, leaving them high enough to be deemed "restrictive. " This means borrowing costs are high enough to drag on the economy and downwardly affect inflation. Fed officials have held off on more rate cuts out of fear that the tariffs Trump has imposed this year could push up prices and set off a fresh round of inflation. Since then, expectations for when rate cuts could resume have been on a roller coaster ride as financial markets and forecasters try to predict the outcome of the trade war: if tariffs drag down the job market enough to threaten a wave of mass layoffs, the Fed could step in and cut rates to help the economy. But if inflation remains above the Fed's target of a 2% annual rate, the Fed could keep rates higher for longer to force it economists predict the Fed will be forced to cut sooner rather than later. Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics, for instance, downplayed the significance of the healthy job growth figures in May, noting that recent jobs reports have been heavily revised downward. The Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly revises its monthly jobs reports as new survey data comes in. The May jobs report downwardly revised job growth for the previous two months by 95,000, for instance."Mr. Trump's criticism of the Fed's current stasis will likely be proven right," economists led by Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a expects the Fed to make three quarter-point cuts before the end of the year as the job market the other end of the spectrum are forecasters at Deutsche Bank, who expect the Fed to hold off on rate cuts until December and make just one cut in 2025. DB's economists, using a proprietary AI tool, said speeches by Fed officials have become more "hawkish" lately, suggesting policymakers are more concerned with fighting inflation than they are with saving jobs. Read the original article on Investopedia Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Winnipeg Free Press
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wait no more
On a sweltering May afternoon, with an apocalyptic smokescreen descending upon the ruins of a burned-down monastery in St. Norbert, director Rodrigo Beilfuss leads rehearsals for a play that's frustrated him every day since preparation began in April. 'It's killing me in a beautiful way,' the artistic director of Shakespeare in the Ruins says with a smile. The work he's discussing is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a play that since its première has confounded, confused, delighted and enlightened audiences the world over. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens, left) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) are the sensual heart of Shakespeare's classic murder mystery. Called an 'acrid cartoon of the story of mankind' in 1956 by New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson, Godot opens on June 13 in St. Norbert, with an estimable cast led by Arne MacPherson's Vladimir, Cory Wojcik's Estragon and Tom Keenan's Pozzo. This season at the Ruins, the company is producing Godot in repertory with Macbeth, which opens tonight, directed by Emma Welham. Last produced by SiR as an award-winning feature film in 2020 as a pandemic pivot project, the Scottish-based play features Darren Martens in the titular role, alongside Lindsay Nance (Lady Macbeth), Tracy Penner (Banquo), Ray Strachan (Macduff) and three actors — Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik (Cory Wojcik's son) — who will straddle the worlds of Beckett and Shakespeare by appearing in both productions. Welham, making her professional directing debut, says that like Godot, Macbeth is a challenging, layered piece of theatre that demands consideration of tragic structure, the presence of the supernatural and the masks its characters wear to cover their private selves. In complementary ways, both directors agree, the works wrestle with human nature, trust and the fallibility of the universe. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Emma Welham takes on the challenge of directing Macbeth. 'Throughout the course of the play — spoiler alert — Macbeth becomes a tyrannical ruler, and this show really asks the question of how we're willing to stand up to it. What are we willing to do to stand up against injustice? It asks the question of who we put our trust in and why,' says Welham, who just finished her first year at the National Theatre School's directing program in Montreal. 'The central image of the show I return to is when Lady Macbeth says, 'Look like the innocent flower / but be the serpent under't.'' Nothing is exactly as it seems, and as in Godot, the work calls into question what is ever knowable about the characters we watch onstage or meet in day-to-day life. At the rehearsal for Godot, the cast and crew are working their way through the particularities of the movement and dialogue in Beckett's two-act tragicomedy, so clearly described in the script that each time the slavish Lucky (Dutiaume) moves a muscle, it must perfectly follow — or blatantly ignore — the orders of Keenan's prim Pozzo. 'It's relentlessly specific,' Beilfuss says, again smiling. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Director Emma Welham (right) works with Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance prior to the opening of Macbeth. 'Can you propose a rhythm for us?' MacPherson asks the director after his Vladimir and Wojcik's Estragon ran through a playful tête à tête. Moments later, Keenan tests his character's coachmen's whip, and soon, Pozzo is smoking a pipe and discarding the bones from a bucket of freshly consumed St. Norbert fried chicken. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Nearby, Mackenzie Wojcik, his father and Dutiaume kick around a hacky sack in the shade of a monastery wall. After about an hour, stage managers decide it's time for a break, suggesting the cast drink water and take respite from the sun. 'I don't know where a logical place to break is,' Keenan says. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance get up to a bit of mayhem and murder in Macbeth. 'That's the problem with this play,' says Beilfuss, laughing. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Irish Examiner
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Cork couple do their bit for Samuel Beckett
No one familiar with Gare St Lazare Ireland's body of work will have been surprised by the success of what the Hollywood Reporter hailed as their 'authentically powerful' production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles late last year. Gare St Lazare is run by Cork couple Judy Hegarty Lovett, who directed the production, and her partner Conor Lovett, who played Pozzo. They launched the company in 1996, when Hegarty Lovett first directed Lovett in their acclaimed adaptation of Beckett's novel Molloy at the Battersea Arts Centre in London, and they have since presented the Nobel Laureate's work to rapt audiences all over the world. In Los Angeles, more than 26,000 people saw their Godot, which also starred Rainn Wilson of NBC's The Office as Vladimir and Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show as Estragon, over its seven-week run. For much of their career, Hegarty Lovett and Lovett have been based in Méricourt — a village on the River Seine an hour northwest of Paris. Méricourt is where they reared their family of three, Louis, Ruby and Lux, and they don't foresee ever leaving. If anything, they're digging in. In 2023, in a gesture that acknowledges their devotion to both Beckett and Méricourt, Hegarty Lovett and Lovett established Atelier Samuel Beckett, an artist's residency in a house next door to their own. 'We're at that stage where we felt we should be giving something back and the residency seemed the best way of doing it. Méricourt is a small community of 380 people, and we're part of its fabric. We're very pleased that our neighbours have been so open to the idea, and are very happy with it. They all came to walk through the house and offer help and furniture. They've been very generous. You don't want to parachute in with an idea like this. You want to integrate it into the community, 'says Hegarty Lovett. Hegarty Lovett and Lovett first got to know Méricourt through the late Bob Meyer, a theatre producer from Chicago they'd worked with in Paris. 'Bob had a place in Méricourt where we'd come and stay,' says Lovett. 'He mentioned that an American couple had a summer house nearby, and they might let us move in when they were not around. So we approached them, and they let us have it. 'After a year we tried to formalise the arrangement; we already had one child, our son Louis, and another on the way. But they didn't want rent, they were just happy to have us in the house. When they came over for the summer, we might be out on tour, or we'd go back to Cork. It worked out fine. It gave us a great start, having the place for so long. We had the same arrangement for six or seven years until we managed to buy another house in the village, where we still live today.' Samuel Beckett Hegarty Lovett's ground-breaking work as a director and Lovett's achievements as an actor have ensured that Gare St Lazare is one of the most dynamic Irish theatre companies at work today. Growing up, however, neither was initially drawn to the stage. Hegarty Lovett attended the Crawford College of Art and Design, while Lovett did a bilingual secretarial course. 'My French teacher on that course was Roisin Crowley, who decided that we should do an end-of-year show, The Lesson by Ionesco,' says Lovett, who lived in the Ballinlough building that also housed his parents' restaurant. 'I'd never been on stage before, but I suddenly thought, 'oh my God, this is where I'm supposed to be'. I went on to study Stagecraft at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa on Tramore Road, and after that, I started acting with the Dram Soc at UCC.' Hegarty Lovett, from Monkstown, became interested in performance art in her final year at the Crawford, which led onto working in the theatre, and completing a post-graduate degree in Dramatherapy at University of Hertfordshire in Britain. When she and Lovett started working together, 'we went into it without fully identifying what it was or what our titles were,' she says. 'It's only in the past few years that I've started thinking of myself as a director.' Their interest in adapting Molloy for the stage led to a meeting with Beckett's publisher, John Calder. 'Because Molloy is a prose work, John was the point of contact for permissions. He was very supportive. He brought Edward Beckett, Samuel's nephew, to see us in London, and thankfully, he liked what we were doing as well. Edward manages the Beckett estate, and from then on we dealt directly with him. We've always maintained a really good relationship.' After Molloy, they went on to adapt Malone Dies and The Unnamable, the other novels in the trilogy Beckett produced after the war, around the same time he composed Waiting for Godot. Later, they also adapted two of his novellas, First Love and The End. Eventually, they branched out into producing larger Beckett productions, beginning with Godot, with Lovett playing the role of Vladimir, which they presented at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2013 and toured to Shanghai, Boston and New York. Actor Stephen Dillane and director Conor Lovett at The Everyman, Cork in 2018. Picture: Darragh Kane They've worked with other writers as well. Hegarty Lovett has directed Lovett in Conor McPherson's The Good Thief, Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Michael Frayn's Copenhagen, and Will Eno's Title and Deed, which they premiered at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2011. Hegarty Lovett's work on another Eno play, The Realistic Joneses, won her the Best Director award at the 2022 Irish Times Theatre Awards. Lovett has also worked with other theatre companies, in roles such as Lucky in Walter Asmus' 50th anniversary Godot production at the Gate in Dublin; The Old Man In His Coffin in Michael Keegan Dolan's The Bull for Fabulous Beast; and David in Lucy Caldwell's Leaves, directed by Garry Hynes for a Druid/Royal Court co-production in Galway and London. He has also acted in films such as Moll Flanders, Intermission, De Gaulle and Ritornello, and on television in Father Ted, Charlie, Versailles and Belgravia. The couple's primary interest, however, has always been in finding new ways to bring Beckett to the stage. In 2015, they began work on an adaptation of his 1961 novel How It Is, which became the basis of the PhD, on the staging of Beckett's prose, that Hegarty Lovett completed six years later through the University of Reading. Even by Beckett's standards, How It Is is bleak, featuring a narrator lying in a pool of mud in the dark who repeats the story of his life as he hears it recounted by a voice inside him. ' How It Is is often seen as being one of Beckett's more inaccessible or impenetrable works, but we think it's a masterpiece,' says Hegarty Lovett. 'We presented our adaptation in three parts over three years from 2018, on a residency at the Everyman Theatre in Cork, working with people like the tenor Mark Padmore and the Irish Gamelan Orchestra. Edward Beckett came to each of the premieres, and he couldn't believe what we'd done with it. We eventually filmed the whole thing as well, during the COVID pandemic. The film is six hours 17 minutes long.' Gare St Lazare has had many supporters, in Ireland and elsewhere, but it was an American couple who helped bring the Atelier Samuel Beckett project to fruition. 'Paul Ralston and Deb Gwinn from Vermont have been patrons for years,' says Hegarty Lovett. 'When they were selling up their coffee business to retire, they approached us and said 'look, we'd like to do something substantial for the company, and make sure you're secure going forward'. When they asked what we'd like to do, we said 'let's create an artist residency in Méricourt'. They thought it was a brilliant idea. They said '100% let's go for it'.' The Beckett Atelier Lovett adds: 'And at the same time the woman who used to own the house next to ours approached us and said 'I'm thinking of selling, and I thought you guys might be interested'. Which was the weirdest thing, as we hadn't put anything out about it. So we bought and renovated the house. We asked Edward Beckett if we could name it the Atelier Samuel Beckett, and he was delighted. That's a huge branding. But it's also a huge endorsement for us as artists, that the Beckett Estate would give us that permission. Edward is a patron of the project, along with the actor Ciarán Hinds, who's based in Paris.' 'Currently it's the only Beckett destination building in the world,' says Hegarty Lovett. 'Beckett's apartment in Paris is still in the family, and he left his retreat in the village of Ussy-sur-Marne to the local farmers who used to look after it for him. But there's no Beckett museum, and no other Beckett residency.' The Atelier in Méricourt has two en suite bedrooms, a kitchen, living room, and a study, which houses the Beckett Library, with books donated by Edward Beckett, John Calder's widow Sheila Colvin Calder and the Lovetts themselves. The house overlooks the River Seine, and there are a number of caves on the property they hope to develop as studio spaces. 'Méricourt is a beautiful place to stay in,' says Lovett. 'Paris is 40 minutes by train, Claude Monet's house in Giverny is a 10-minute drive away, and La Roche-Guyon, another nearby village, has a massive chateau that's well worth a visit. We make our second car available to our residents. As long as you're licensed, we have a fully comprehensive insurance that will cover you.' Edward Beckett and Hinds have both stayed at the Atelier, as have writers Kevin Barry and John Dunlea; composers Benedict Schelpper-Connolly, David Stalling and Anthony Kelly; and actors Faline England, Sorcha Fox and Ally Ní Chiaráin, among many others. 'Galway Culture Company has sponsored two residencies, and we're hoping to come to a similar arrangement with Cork County Council and the National Sculpture Factory,' says Hegarty Lovett. The couple have also just announced a three-year collaboration with the National Latinx Theatre in Los Angeles, awarding three-week residencies to the Chicano playwright Luis Alfaro in 2026, the Uruguayan Gracia Rogelia in 2027, and the Venezolana Rebeca Aleman in 2028. Along with the space for artists to stay and work in, residencies at the Atelier come with the option of mentorship. 'When we started the Atelier, it was obvious to us that it should provide access to the artistic directors of Gare St Lazare,' says Lovett. 'We feel we have something to offer, all this Beckett knowledge we've built up over the years that we're happy to impart to others.' 'We also have access to the greater Beckett community,' says Hegarty Lovett. 'We know we can call on these people to give mentorship, workshops or whatever. And all of that can be tailored to whoever's coming through and whatever their specific needs are. We're not suggesting that everyone who stays here must work on a Beckett project, of course. The only prerequisite, really, is that they be curious about Beckett and want to learn more.' Hegarty Lovett and Lovett currently run the Atelier themselves, but longterm they'd like to get somebody else in to run it. They have two new Gare St Lazare productions in development. 'One is another collaboration with Will Ono, which we're developing with the Gate Theatre in Dublin,' says Hegarty Lovett. 'The other is a new version of a Marcel Mihalovici chamber opera based on Beckett's one-man play, Krapp's Last Tape. We hope to launch that in Ireland next year, and then tour it internationally.' Their family is equally busy. 'All three live in Paris,' says Lovett. 'Louis is a filmmaker, Ruby works at Art for Human Rights, and Lux is studying interior design, though she also acts. She worked with us on Shades Through a Shade at the Samuel Beckett Theatre as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival last year.' Looking back, they're sometimes surprised at just how rich their journey has been. Hegarty Lovett says: 'In those early years in Méricourt, we created the body of work we're still bringing out around the world today, It has sustained us hugely.' SAMUEL BECKETT 1906-1989 Samuel Beckett was born and reared in Dublin, but settled in Paris in 1937. For all that he found Ireland too conservative a place to live in, he still took a certain pride in his background. Once, when asked if he was English, he replied: 'Au contraire.' Beckett published a short story collection, More Pricks Than Kicks, in 1934, and went on to produce a series of novels that included Murphy (1938), Watt (1934), Molloy (1951), Malone Dies (1951) and The Unnamable (1958). However, he is better-known for his plays, including Waiting for Godot (1953), Endgame (1957), Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Happy Days (1961). Beckett is associated with the Theatre of the Absurd. His works for the stage are renowned for their bleak sense of humour. In Waiting for Godot, two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, pass the time in idle banter. When Estragon embarks on an eloquent description of the Dead Sea, Vladimir remarks: 'You should have been a poet.' Estragon gestures at his rags and replies 'I was. Isn't that obvious?' Beckett did not enjoy the limelight. When he won the 1969 Nobel Prize for Literature, his wife Suzanne Dechevaux- Dumesnil called it 'a catastrophe,' knowing the prize money might bring them financial stability, but it would be at the cost of their privacy. Suzanne died in July 1989 and Beckett in December. They are buried in Montparnasse, under a headstone that Beckett insisted could be 'any colour, as long as it's grey.' Read More Michael Quane and Johanna Connor: Cork husband and wife artists unite for joint exhibition
