Samuel Beckett: Fail Better
Poet in the City presents: Fail Better
‘to be an artist is to fail, as no other dare fail’
Writing in a time of global change and at the intersection of literary modernism and postmodernism, Samuel Beckett’s work was preoccupied with the failure of language to express the human condition. Resolved to finding a way for language to ‘fail better’, Beckett’s writing ripped up convention and created new limits for language and people.
Join us for an evening of live poetry, performance and discussion exploring Samuel Beckett’s famed approach to failure. Featuring acclaimed actor Juliet Stevenson, theatre director Natalie Abrahami, academic and writer Emilie Morin and author Joanna Walsh.
Artist biographies
Juliet Stevenson is one of Britain’s leading actors. She has worked extensively for the RSC, National Theatre and the Royal Court, winning an Olivier award for her performance as Paulina in Death and The Maiden in 1991. Her films include Truly, Madly, Deeply and Being Julia.
Natalie Abrahami was Artistic Director of the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill from 2007-2012 and Associate Director at the Young Vic 2013-16. She has also been Associate Artist at the Nuffield Theatre and at Hull Truck. Recent theatre and opera include: Swive [Elizabeth] (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), ANNA (National Theatre), The Meeting (Chichester Festival Theatre), Machinal (Almeida), Wings, Happy Days, After Miss Julie and Ah, Wilderness! (Young Vic); Queen Anne (Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Royal Haymarket); How the Whale Became and Other Tales (Linbury Studio, Royal Opera House). Her film credits include Mayday, The Roof and Life’s a Pitch. Natalie’s forthcoming production of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of The Screw will be at the Linbury Theatre, Royal Opera House in June 2020.
Emilie Morin is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. She specialises in modern British and Irish literature, theatre history and forms of political writing. She has published widely in these fields including writing the books: Beckett’s Political Imagination (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Samuel Beckett and the Problem of Irishness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Joanna Walsh is a writer, artist and editor. She is the author of seven books including the digital work seed-story.com. Her latest book, Break.up, was published by Semiotext(e) in 2018. She is a UK Arts Foundation Fellow, and a PhD candidate in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia, where she also runs Critical Acts.
When is failure a good thing? Poet in the City’s 2020 programme contemplates failure as a catalyst for change.
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