Staging Beckett in Great Britain & Ireland by David Tucker and Trish McTighe

Beckett’s relationship with British theatre is complex and underexplored, yet his impact has been immense. Uniquely placing performance history at the centre of its analysis, this volume examines Samuel Beckett’s drama as it has been staged in Great Britain, bringing to light a wide range of untold histories and in turn illuminating six decades of drama in Britain.

Staging Samuel Beckett in Great Britain by Trish McTighe and David Tucker

Ranging from studies of the first English tour of Waiting for Godot in 1955 to Talawa’s 2012 all-black co-production of the same play, Staging Samuel Beckett in Great Britain excavates a host of archival resources in order to historicize how Beckett’s drama has interacted with specific theatres, directors and theatre cultures in the UK. It traces production histories of plays such as Krapp’s Last Tape; presents Beckett’s working relationships with the Royal Court, Riverside and West Yorkshire Playhouse, as well as with directors such as Peter Hall; looks at the history of Beckett’s drama in Scotland and how the plays have been staged in London’s West End. Production analyses are mapped onto political, economic and cultural contexts of Great Britain so that Beckett’s drama resonates in new ways, through theatre practice, against the complex contexts of Great Britain’s regions.

With contributions from experts in the fields of both Beckett studies and UK drama, including S.E. Gontarski, David Pattie, Mark Taylor-Batty and Sos Eltis, the volume offers an exceptional and unique understanding of Beckett’s reception on the UK stage and the impact of his drama within UK theatre practices. Together with its sister volume, Staging Samuel Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland it will prove a terrific resource for students, scholars and theatre practitioners.

Staging Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland by Trish McTighe and David Tucker

This is the first full-length study to focus on Samuel Beckett’s drama as it has been staged in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

While Beckett’s relationship with his native land was a complex one, the importance of his drama as a creative force both historically and in contemporary practice in those regions cannot be underestimated. The volume brings to light unexamined and little-known productions, for example Beckett’s drama in the Irish language, Druid Theatre Company’s productions, and Beckett at Dublin’s Focus Theatre, as well as previously unpublished archival materials. Leading scholars, such as Anna McMullan and Anthony Roche, and renowned dramatic interpreters of Beckett’s work, such as Barry McGovern, explore Beckett’s drama within the context of Irish creative theatrical practice and heritage, and point towards the theatrical and performance legacies that follow in its wake.

Production analyses are mapped on to the political, economic and cultural contexts of Ireland and the North so that readers are invited to experience Beckett’s drama as resonating in new ways, through theatre practice, against the complex and connected histories of these lands.

David Tucker is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and currently teaches at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the editor of British Social Realism in the Arts since 1940 (Palgrave, 2011).

Trish McTighe is Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Birmingham. Previously, she lectured at Queen’s University, Belfast and was an AHRC post-doctoral researcher on the Staging Beckett Project at the University of Reading (2012-2015).

Staging Beckett in Great Britain
Editors: David Tucker, Trish McTighe
Published: 19-10-2017
Format: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 288
ISBN: 9781474240161
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Bloomsbury Publishing

Staging Beckett in Ireland and Northern Ireland
Volume editor: Trish McTighe, David Tucker
Published: 19-10-2017
Format: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Extent: 288
ISBN: 9781474240543
Imprint: Methuen Drama
Bloomsbury Publishing

More titles on Beckett to be published soon:

∗ The Making of Samuel Beckett’s ‘Malone Dies’/’Malone meurt’ by: Dirk Van Hulle, Pim Verhulst

∗ Beckett’s Creatures. Art of Failure after the Holocaust by: Joseph Anderton

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