CELEBRATING BECKETT

Sydney celebrates the 50th Anniversary of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot

Samuel Beckett, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, was one of the twentieth century's foremost writers and dramatists. His work as a whole, by turns bleak and blackly humorous, at once gives voice to suffering humanity, and calls on us to question the nature of things. The first performance of En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot) in January 1953 is considered one of the central events in the history of contemporary theatre. The image of two tramps caught in a moment, waiting for an event of uncertain significance has left an indelible impression on the consciousness of the West, and gave expression to a post-war sense of disorientation and disquiet that the distance of half a century has not subdued. Beckett's prose and stage works continue to appeal to artists beyond the realms of literature and theatre, eliciting creative responses across the arts and humanities, ranging from sound and visual arts to philosophy, social criticism and ethics.

Celebration

We are proud to announce that Sydney will host a series of events of international significance celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the first performance of En Attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot). As part of the Sydney Festival of 2003, and fifty years to the day since the first production in Paris, Belvoir St Theatre will premiere a new production of Godot directed by Neil Armfield and starring John Gaden and Max Cullen, and the Sydney Theatre Company will premiere an exciting new production of Endgame directed by Benedict Andrews. The premieres will coincide with a series of cultural events exploring the diversity of Beckett's artistic influence and interests, which is likely to include the screening of the Beckett on Film; radio broadcasts of Beckett's works; visual arts exhibitions; theatrical productions of Beckett plays and other plays inspired and influenced by him.

Conference

In addition a conference organised by the University of Western Sydney and held at the Wharf Theatre on Sydney Harbour entitled after Beckett d'après Beckett will gather leading academics and practitioners from the fields of Beckett studies and theatre performance from around the world. Keynote speakers will include the French philosopher Luce Irigaray, the South African novelist and Booker Prize winner J. M. Coetzee and American performance theorists Herbert Blau and Peggy Phelan. The events will be attended and opened by Beckett's literary executor and nephew Edward Beckett.

Cultural event

This is a cultural event of uncommon scope, designed to promote mutual support and interest between each event, of a kind rarely seen before in Australia.