THE BECKETT TRILOGY

Tickets start at $25

Friday, November 4 at 7pm
Saturday, November 5 at 7pm

Molloy — Malone Dies — The Unnamable
by Samuel Beckett
Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett
Performed by Conor Lovett
Lighting by Simon Bennison

“Gare St Lazare and their collaborators deserve to be congratulated, and cherished, for their uncompromising artistic vision and continued championing of Beckett’s work.” — The Irish Examiner

Few works of contemporary literature are so universally acclaimed or central to our understanding of the human experience as Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett‘s novels Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In this evening-length theatrical rendition featuring excerpts from each novel, preeminent Beckett interpreters Conor Lovett and director Judy Hegarty Lovett offer an embodiment of Beckett’s existential trinity in a profound solo performance.

The Beckett Trilogy confirmed Gare St Lazare Ireland as major Beckett interpreters and theatrical innovators when it premiered at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2000. Writing in The Irish Times, the late Eileen Battersby noted “the theatre programme was dominated, indeed obliterated, by Lovett’s astonishing performance.” The Beckett Trilogy had its New York City premiere at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in 2017.

A cold, hard jewel of a performance, an absolutely riveting experience that, if it ever comes your way, is worth dropping everything to encounter.”– Fintan O’Toole, The Irish Times

“For those unfamiliar with the trilogy, it’s an excellent introduction; for those who have already read them, it’s a joyous exploration of a work that remains as freshly challenging as when it was written.” – Alison Croggon, The Australian

HUDSON, NY: September 29, 2022 – Hudson Hall at the historic Hudson Opera House welcomes the return of Gare St. Lazare Ireland (Moby Dick, 2019) to perform The Beckett Trilogy, a three-hour solo tour-de-force from the “unparalleled Beckett champions” (New York Times). Performances take place on November 4 & 5 at 7pm in Hudson Hall’s beautifully restored 1855 theater. Tickets start at $25 and can be purchased at hudsonhall.org or by phone at (518) 822-1438.

Few works of contemporary literature are so universally acclaimed and as central to our understanding of the human experience as Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett’s novels Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable. In this evening-length theatrical rendition featuring excerpts from each novel, preeminent Beckett interpreters – actor Conor Lovett and director Judy Hegarty Lovett, with lighting design by Simon Bennison – present an embodiment of Beckett’s existential trinity as a profound solo performance.

The Beckett Trilogy confirmed Gare St Lazare Ireland as major Beckett interpreters and theatrical innovators when it premiered at Kilkenny Arts Festival in 2000. Writing in The Irish Times, the late Eileen Battersby noted “the theatre programme was dominated, indeed obliterated, by Lovett’s astonishing performance.” The Beckett Trilogy had its New York City premiere at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival in 2017.

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“A company that is working on the cutting edge of world theatre, and work of the highest quality” – Plays International (2022)

Since creating Gare St Lazare in 1998, Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty-Lovett have presented Beckett’s work in Ireland and across the globe, appearing at international festivals such as UCLA LiveArts, Melbourne Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Brighton Festival and many others. Their US and European tours and co-production partnerships include ArtsEmerson Boston, Signature Theater, New York (Title and Deed by Will Eno, 2012), Dublin Theatre Festival (Waiting For Godot, 2013); Kilkenny Arts Festival, as well as site-specific/site-sensitive ventures in museums, galleries and warehouses. In November 2017, the company made their second visit in three years to the Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival with their acclaimed production of The Beckett Trilogy.

Judy Hegarty-Lovett joined the original Gare St Lazare Players in Paris in 1991 and went on to direct Bouncers by John Godber and Rockaby and Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett.  In 1996, Judy directed Conor Lovett in Molloy by Samuel Beckett in London, and so began Gare St Lazare Ireland. She has since directed 16 Beckett titles. Judy’s work has toured to over 60 venues in Ireland and to over 80 cities around the world.  In 2015 she was nominated for an Off-West End Award for Best Director for First Love by Samuel Beckett at The Arcola.  Also in 2015, Judy mounted Here all Night, The End and Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival and at NYU’s Skirball Center respectively.  How It Is (Part 1) was nominated for Best Production and Best Actor at The Irish Times Theater Awards 2019 where it received awards for Best Soundscape and Best Lighting Design.

Conor Lovett trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. His work with Gare St Lazare Ireland performing the writings of Samuel Beckett has earned him a reputation as one of the world’s great Beckett actors. Lovett has performed over 18 Beckett roles in 25 different productions internationally and has performed Beckett in 25 countries worldwide. In the U.S., Lovett has performed at the Lincoln Center (New York) Signature Theatre (New York), Arts Emerson (Boston), Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (Bard College), Steppenwolf Theater (Chicago), The Public Theater (New York), and many others.

For the screen, his appearances include Versailles, Endeavour, Acceptable Risk, I’ll Find You, The Man in the Hat, Father Ted, Intermission, Moll Flanders, L’Entente Cordiale, The Kings of Cork City, Small Engine Repair, and Fallout. He has performed on three occasions for The President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins.

In 2015, Lovett was a Best Actor Nominee in the Off-West End Awards in London (UK) for First Love by Beckett.  He won The Stage Award for Acting Excellence at Edinburgh Festival in 2014 for Title and Deed by Will Eno. In 2010, Lovett was nominated for Best Actor for his performance of Moby Dick, and the previous year he was a Judges Special Prize nominee for his Beckett performances in The End and First Love.

Simon Bennison is a Lighting Designer based in London working across ballet, dance, opera and theatre. He is the former Lighting Associate for the Royal Opera House. His recent works The Dante Project won Best New Dance Piece at the South Bank Awards 2022, Anemoi won Best Classical Choreography at the Dancing Times Awards and Scherzo won Best New Dance Piece at the South Bank Awards 2021.

Samuel Barclay Beckett (1906 – 1989) was a Nobel Prize winning Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator, and is revered as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the Theatre of the Absurd. His seminal work Waiting for Godot is a timeless classic that delved into the absurdity of human existence. Beckett became a part of the French Resistance movement during the World War II and fled to escape war. Some of his best-known works include, Malone Dies, Molloy, The Unnamable, Watt and Endgame. His works have been translated into more than twenty languages.