26 Feb European Premiere of “Beckett / Poetry” at Atelje 212
As part of the 14th Belgrade Irish Festival, audience will have the opportunity to attend the European premiere of the performance “Beckett / Poetry”, performed by award-winning Irish actors Stephen Rea and Ruth Negga. The play is scheduled for March 15 and 16 at Atelje 212.
The production is directed by Alan Gilsenan, a renowned Irish film and theatre director and former long-time director of the Irish Film Institute.
The performance will be staged at Atelje 212, a theatre whose history is closely connected to the work of Samuel Beckett, the father of the Theatre of the Absurd and one of Europe’s and Ireland’s greatest literary figures. Beckett’s play “Waiting for Godot” was performed for the first time in Eastern Europe in Belgrade, on the stage of this very theatre, in the autumn of 1956. According to theatre historians, this was one of the most revolutionary moments in the history of Serbian theatre – a turning point that transformed the way domestic audiences experienced modern drama and a production that stirred the political and social life of socialist Yugoslavia.
“Beckett / Poetry”: On Lost Love and the Disappearance of the World We Know
Although Samuel Beckett is primarily known for his monumental body of prose and drama, literary scholars consider poetic form to be deeply woven into his entire oeuvre. This very idea guided director Alan Gilsenan, who notes that while Beckett’s poetry may be somewhat overlooked, it is essential to understanding his complete body of work.
“I was drawn to poems that touched me personally – through their language, imagery, and the power of words when spoken aloud. Throughout my selection runs a strong motif of lost love, as well as a sense of the disappearance of the world we know,” says Alan Gilsenan about the piece he will present to Belgrade audiences.
Stephen Rea and Ruth Negga: The Power of Verse and the Magic of Theatrical Darkness
Beckett’s verses will be performed by Irish actors Stephen Rea and Ruth Negga, both well known to Serbian audiences from film and television. Stephen Rea is best known for his long-standing collaboration with Academy Award-winning director Neil Jordan, who will also be a guest in Belgrade this March. Jordan and Rea are among the most enduring creative partnerships in cinema, having collaborated for over 40 years on dozens of acclaimed films. Both artists will receive the Golden Seal of the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade in recognition of their contribution to film art.
Stephen Rea is one of the rare actors who had the opportunity to work directly with Samuel Beckett. According to director Gilsenan, that experience was invaluable in shaping this production.
Ruth Negga has built an internationally acclaimed stage career, notably through her award-winning performance as Lady Macbeth on Broadway. Particularly remarkable is the fact that she has also performed the role of Hamlet – a performance critics have praised for its unique stage sensibility.
“From his direct experience working with Beckett, Stephen Rea told me that it is crucial to preserve the ‘openness’ of the poetry when it is spoken on stage. That means we should not explain or confine the text, but allow it to breathe in the imagination of the audience, as they sit in the darkness of your beautiful theatre,” says Alan Gilsenan.
The performance will be staged on March 15 and 16 at the Mira Trailović Stage of Atelje 212.
Subtitles will be provided.
Tickets are available at the Atelje 212 box office and at www.tickets.rs.
“Beckett / Poetry” offers a rare opportunity to experience Beckett’s work through the living word, through voice and silence, in a theatre space historically connected to his legacy.