• Happy Days Festival: Catastrophe

    August 12, 2014 - By 

    It seemed certain that somebody would let the cat out of the bag. A tongue would slip and the secret would surely be out. The mystery surrounding the location of the Ceithleann Island Theatre Company’s performances of Samuel Beckett’s Catastrophe was an imaginative programming touch of the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival and a great publicity generator. Despite two performances every day bar one throughout the marathon eleven-day festival, nobody spilled the beans. On this day, the bus routinely picks up about fifty people from Enniskillen Castle and heads out into the wilds of the Fermanagh countryside – destination…

  • Happy Days Festival: Donal O’Kelly reads Samuel Beckett’s Sedendo et Quiescendo

    August 4, 2014 - By 

    For some, purgatory might well be a dawn rise to catch a 7am boat on Lough Erne, one that ferries you to an uninhabited island for a reading of Samuel Beckett’s lesser known work. Lough Erne was an ancient pathway for pilgrims from the Shannon heading to the monastery of Devonish and other church sites. But purgatory this is not, for the pilgrims this fresh, sunny Fermanagh morning are all Beckettphiles. The Purgatorio Island Readings have been a constant feature of the first three editions of the Happy Days Eniskillen International Beckett Festival, and hugely popular with attendees as well…

  • Not I/Footfalls/Rockaby by Samuel Beckett @ The MAC

    July 28, 2014 - By 

    From September 2 to September 6, The Mac, Belfast, will present three classic plays by Samuel Beckett, executed in just one-hour long, rarely performed, piece. Not I is an intense monologue, set in a pitch-black space lit by a single beam of light. A disembodied female mouth floats eight feet above the stage and delivers a stream of consciousness, spoken, as Beckett directed, at the speed of thought. Footfalls tells the moving story of May, a ghostly figure who paces back and forth like a metronome outside her dying mother’s room. Completing the trilogy is Rockaby – probably the most famous…

  • Happy Days Festival 2014

    July 3, 2014 - By 

    Dedicated to the life and work of Nobel-prize winning Irish writer Samuel Beckett, Happy Days Festival returns to Enniskillen from July 31 to August 10. World-renown as one of the finest and boldest alternative festivals around, Happy Days – named after the 1961 Beckett play of the same name – will see varied theatre productions, visual art, concerts, writers and artists talks, special events and everything in between take place across Enniskillen over the eleven days. Make sure to check out the full brochure for the festival – including venues and ticket prices – here. Watch a clip of Billie Whitelaw in a performance…

  • International Beckett Festival 2013

    July 27, 2013 - By 

    The world’s largest annual multi-arts celebration of Nobel Prize winning writer Samuel Beckett, the Happy Days International Beckett Festival returns to Enniskillen this August from Thursday 22 to Monday 26. Encompassing a number of events in not only theatre but also dance, comedy, visual arts and several special one-off performances. The first annual festival to celebrate Beckett’s work and influence, last year’s festival coincided with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Enniskillen. Beckett himself spent his formative years attending the town’s Portora Royal School, previously attended by Oscar Wilde and latterly by Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. To buy tickets…