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Cal Performances Presents

Wednesday, , , pm Th ursday, November , , pm Friday, November , , pm Saturday, November , , pm Saturday, November , , pm Sunday, November , , pm Roda Th eatre Th e Gate Th eatre Production of by Presented in Association with David Eden Productions, Ltd.

Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES 15 Cast

Waiting for Godot

Estragon Johnny Vladimir Barry McGovern Lucky Stephen Brennan Pozzo A boy Barry O’Connell

Director Walter D. Asmus Designer Lighting Designer Rupert Murray Lighting Realization James McConnell Lighting Supervisor Tom Mays U.S. Stage Manager Michael Blanco

Gate Th eatre Dublin Director, Gate Th eatre Dublin Michael Colgan Deputy Director Marie Rooney Head of Production Teerth Chungh Financial Controller Padraig Heneghan Th eatre Manager Laura MacNaughton Production Manager James McConnell Front-of-House Manager Vincent Brightling Bar Manager Cathal Maguire

Production Credits Touring Production Manager Brendan Galvin Production Coordinator Valerie Keogh Manager/Stage Director Leo McKenna Wardrobe Supervisor Valerie Dempsey

www.gate-.ie

Th e Edwards-MacLiammóir Gate Th eatre Trust Laurence Crowley Ronnie Tallon

Th e Gate Th eatre is a not-for-profi t organization which is administered by the Edwards-MacLiammóir Trust and funded by the Irish Arts Council. Its corporate sponsors are Ulster Bank and RTÉ. Th e Gate Th eatre is grateful for the very generous support of Culture , which is enabling this U.S. tour of the production. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett presented through special arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc. on behalf of Th e Estate of Samuel Beckett. All rights reserved. Th e actors in Waiting for Godot appear with the special permission of Actors’ Equity Association. Th e American stage manager is a member of Actors’ Equity Association.

16 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes

dulged in some audience participation. Beckett and Cunningham were sitting in the front row at a called Payment Deferred and there was some comment made on stage. Beckett rose to his feet and said out loud, “My God, what a pro- found remark!” He also helped his friend Mary Manning with her  play Youth’s the Season. He in- vented a character called Egosmith, a bartender whom everybody talked to but who never said a word throughout the whole play. Twenty years later, the fi rst Godot in Ireland, the – Pike production, played for a time at the Gate Th eatre. Th e Gate has played a big part in my connec- tion with Beckett. When I was in my fi nal year at Castleknock College, a group of us sixth years managed to get permission to see Godot at the Gate, performed by UCD Dramsoc. Th is was my fi rst time to see the play on stage. Th e actor who played Lucky was the late Chris O’ Neill (a future Gate board member), who subsequent- ly directed me as Lucky in my fi rst Godot, for Beckett and Godot and the Gate Four-in-One Players, which also played at the Gate—my fi rst appearance in the theatre. Th e Th e Gate Th eatre is mentioned only once in Vladimir was Colm Ó Briain, who later directed Beckett’s work. In chapter fi ve of Murphy, af- my one-man Beckett show, I’ll Go On, which ter our eponymous hero has almost fi nished his the Gate presented at the  Dublin Th eatre “fourpenny lunch” in a London eating-house, Festival. Th e boy, incidentally, was played by the he is accosted by Austin Ticklepenny (a thinly distinguished pianist John O’Conor, whose son, disguised ), “Pot Poet/From the Hugh, appeared with me at the Gate last year in County of Dublin” as it says on his visiting card ’s Th e Home Place. which is thrust into Murphy’s nose. Murphy In , I was performing I’ll Go On at says to him: “Didn’t I have the dishonour once Lincoln Center in New York. Th ey wanted to in Dublin.... Can it have been at the Gate?” extend the six-week run, but I was booked to “Romiet,” said Ticklepenny, “and Juleo. come back to Dublin to start rehearsals for— ‘Take him and cut him out in little starts…’ yes, Waiting for Godot at the Gate. Tom Hickey Wotanope!” and I were to play the two main characters but Th e is set in . In November , were to meet with the director Walter Asmus was performed at the Gate with (whom Beckett had recommended as director) Micheál Mac Liammóir as Romeo and Meriel before he decided who would play which part. I Moore as Juliet. Mercutio was played by Hilton had played Vladimir once before in Ben Barnes’s Edwards and by a young , Irish Th eatre Co. production in  and as- who would play Krapp some  years later. sumed that I would probably play it again. But Beckett himself attended the Gate on a num- after reading various scenes with Tom, Walter ber of occasions. His friend Bill Cunningham suddenly said: “O.K. you (Tom) play Vladimir once told me of an incident when Beckett in- and you (me) play Estragon.” I was surprised but

CAL17 PERFORMANCES 17 Program Notes excited at the prospect. How many actors get the have brought their own special talents to this chance to play either part let alone both (not to most diffi cult role. mention Lucky!). In  and , the complete Beckett In , for the Gate’s mammoth Beckett Festival played at New York’s Lincoln Center Festival of all  stage plays, Tom wasn’t avail- Festival and London’s Barbican. Waiting for able, so I moved over to Vladimir and the in- Godot played at other festivals, including comparable Johnny Murphy came in to play Chicago, Melbourne and Toronto. In , Estragon—a role he had graced with unique we played in Beijing and Shanghai. Earlier this distinction in a number of productions. I’d al- year, Godot was part of Beckett on Stage, the ways wanted to do Godot with him so it was a Gate’s Centenary Beckett Festival which played happy circumstance. Alan Stanford and Stephen in London and Dublin. Brennan made up the rest of the adult team and I think I speak for all of us when I say that Eamon Young was the fi rst of our many boys. playing in this production has been a privilege And so began a journey that, so far, has no beyond the norm in this business. To have had end in sight. Still waiting. We have played the the opportunity to revisit many times one of the production seven times at the Gate and it has greatest and certainly one of the most seminal toured to many cities and towns both in Ireland plays of the last century has been an experience and around the world. To date, we have played not available to most. Beckett was still in the the show  times in  runs and in  venues. land of the living—God be with the days!— On the way we have been graced, from time to when this production fi rst saw the dark of . time, with three other Luckys: Pat Kinevane, May his ghost light our way for many years to Donal O’Kelly and Conor Lovett, all of whom come. Barry McGovern

18 CAL PERFORMANCES18 About the Artists

Th e Gate Th eatre has been, both artistically the Beckett Festival, as it played at the Lincoln and architecturally, a landmark building in Center in New York and the Dublin for over  years. Established as a the- in London. atre in  by and Micheál In between these two showcases, Waiting for MacLiammóir, the Gate off ered Dublin audi- Godot toured worldwide. In January , the ences an introduction to the world of European Gate presented its widely acclaimed production and American avant-garde theatre, as well as to celebrate the th anniversary of the fi rst-ever vibrant productions from the modern and clas- staging of the play. Due to popular demand, sic Irish repertoire. It was at the Gate that such Godot returned to the Gate in October , luminaries as and James Mason and in May  the Gate was delighted to began their prodigious acting careers. Today, bring the production to Beijing and Shanghai as the theatre continues to attract the fi nest cre- part of the Ireland China Festival. ative talent, off ering a stimulating and inclusive In April , the production featured as programme that appeals to theatregoers of all one of the highlights of the Beckett Centenary generations. Festival when, under the auspices of the In , the directorship passed to Michael Department of Art, Sport and Tourism, the Colgan, under whose guidance the artistic repu- Gate Th eatre joined forces with Dublin’s leading tation of the theatre has continued to fl ourish, cultural and academic institutions to present an making the theatre unique in that there have extraordinary program of plays, music, exhibi- only been two artistic directorates in  years. tions, lectures and art installations in the capital Over the years, the Gate has developed throughout April. Th e Gate toured Godot along unique relationships with many playwrights with eight other Beckett plays to the Barbican in including Samuel Beckett, Brian Friel, Conor London at part of bite . Th e Gate’s production McPherson and . In October , of , starring , then trans- the Gate marked Harold Pinter’s th birthday ferred to the Duke of York’s Th eatre in London’s with a celebration of his work, producing Old West End. Times and Betrayal, and, on the weekend of his Also in , the Gate produced Brian Friel’s birthday, the Pinter Landscape—a selection of , starring Ingrid Craigie, Ralph plays, poetry and prose—which was later pre- Fiennes and Ian McDiarmid. Th is production sented at the Albery Th eatre London and was broke all box-offi ce records, selling out weeks in seen in Turin in March  as part of the advance of the fi rst performance. Faith Healer European Th eatre Prize event. transferred to the Booth Th eater, Broadway after Waiting for Godot was fi rst performed at its run in Dublin and received four Tony Award the Gate Th eatre in  following a meeting nominations, including Best Revival of a Play, between Michael Colgan and Samuel Beckett, with Ian McDiarmid winning a Tony Award for when he asked if the Gate would be interested his performance. in mounting a production. Since then, the Gate production of Godot has toured extensively both Johnny Murphy most recently played Estragon at home and abroad, from Cork to Chicago and in Waiting for Godot at the Gate Th eatre Dublin from Toronto to Tralee. as part of the Beckett Centenary Festival and Th e fi rst Beckett Festival was presented by also at the Barbican Centre London as part of the Gate in  during which all  of Beckett’s bite . plays were performed over a three-week period, He previously appeared in Waiting for Godot accompanied by seminars and lectures on the during the  Beckett Festival at the Gate author’s work, and  and  saw the re- Th eatre in Dublin, as well as during the  turn of Godot within the overall structure of Festival at Lincoln Center, New York and the

CAL PERFORMANCES 19 About the Artists

BITE:  Festival at the Barbican Centre in , Chorus in ’s version of London. He also appeared in Ohio Impromptu , Th e Burial at Th ebes at the Abbey and and as part of the Beckett Festivals. Baptista Minola in the Th e Taming of the Shrew He has also appeared at the Gate Th eatre, at the Project Th eatre. His TV work includes Dublin in As You Like It, Arrah-na-Pogue and Giuseppe Conlon in Dear Sarah and Eamon de Th e Saints Go Cycling In. Valera in Th e Treaty. Films include Joe Versus the His other theatre credits include Buddleia Volcano, Far and Away, Braveheart, Th e General at the , London; I Do Not and Waiting for Godot. Like Th ee, Dr Fell at the Gaiety Th eatre, Dublin; Barry’s award winning one-man Beckett Brothers of the Brush at the Th eatre, show I’ll Go On (from the , Malone Dublin; Sive at the Abbey Th eatre, Dublin; and Dies and Th e Unnamable), which the Gate pre- A Picture of Paradise, At Swim Two Birds and sented during the  Dublin Th eatre Festival, Th e Passion of Jerome at the Peacock Th eatre, has traveled worldwide. It has just completed an- Dublin. other run at the Gate. His complete recording of He starred in the hit fi lm, Th e Commitments. the novels, produced by the Lannan Foundation His other fi lm credits include Angela’s Ashes, and RTÉ, is now available on www.rte.ie/shop. Th e War of the Buttons, Into the West, , Fools of Fortune and Waiting for Godot. Stephen Brennan has worked extensively at His television credits include Scarlett, Against All the Gate Th eatre since . He was last seen Odds and Th e Bill. He has also completed Two in New York in  in two Harold Pinter Gallants for BBC Radio. plays, Landscape and A Kind of Alaska, which the Gate brought to the Harold Pinter Festival Barry McGovern fi rst appeared at the Gate at Lincoln Center. Other appearances for the Th eatre as Lucky in Waiting for Godot in . Gate include the world premiere of Conor He had previously played his fi rst Beckett role, McPherson’s , which opened at Clov in , while a student at UCD. the New Ambassador’s Th eatre London, before Since then he has played Clov three times, most transferring to the Gate in ; leading roles in recently with the Gate as part of the Beckett , Private Lives, Twelfth Night, Festival which toured to New York and London. Our Country’s Good and A Midsummer Night’s In  he played Vladimir in Ben Barnes’s Irish Dream; and, from a long list of highlights, Th eatre Co. production of Waiting for Godot and Present Laughter, Pride and Prejudice, She Stoops in  he played Estragon at the Gate. Since to Conquer, Art, Pygmalion, Jane Eyre, Fagan the fi rst Beckett Festival in , he has played in Oliver Twist and title roles in Tartuff e and Vladimir. Other Beckett roles include Willie in Cyrano de Bergerac stand out. He also appeared with (directed in Betrayal for the Gate’s  Pinter Festival by the late ) and Krapp’s Last Tape at and Old Times as part of Pinter’s th birthday the Samuel Beckett Th eatre in Trinity College. celebrations in . On radio, he has played Henry in , Fox He has played Lucky in the Gate’s Waiting in Rough for Radio II, directed All Th at Fall and for Godot in Dublin, Seville, Chicago, Tralee, presented a documentary on Beckett and Paris. Kilkenny, New York, London, a US Tour in  Recent theatre roles include Creon in and most recently for the Beckett Centenary Oedipus, Frank in Educating Rita, Kreon in Festival in London and Dublin. Medea, Tobias in A Delicate Balance, Frank He joined the Abbey Th eatre for eight years in Hardy in Faith Healer, Boniface in Ariel, , where he played more than  leading and Scrooge in at the Gate, Peter supporting roles, including title roles in Hamlet Flynn in Th e Plough and the Stars, Polonius in and Hugh Leonard’s Da. He joined the National

20 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists

Th eatre of Great Britain for a year in . Other American and Animal Farm. He is a member of roles include Frank-N-Furter in Th e Rocky Horror the Arts Council of Ireland. Show, Petruchio in Th e Taming of the Shrew and title roles in Oedipus and Th e Life of Galileo. Barry O’ Connell most recently appeared at Films include Eat the Peach, Conspiracy of the Gate Th eatre in Waiting for Godot as part of the Rings, Stolen Minds, Th e General and both the Beckett Centenary Festival. He has also ap- Waiting for Godot and A Piece of Monologue for peared at the Gate in A Christmas Carol. He is  . His television work includes El years old and has been performing since he was Cid for Granada, Ballykissangel for BBC, Father , when he played Chip in Disney’s Beauty and Ted for Channel , Mystic Knights for Fox Kids the Beast at the Point. He currently attends the and Bachelor’s Walk for RTÉ. Independent Th eatre Workshop. No stranger to title roles, he has played Oliver on two occasions Alan Stanford has been a principal actor and in record-breaking runs at the Tivoli Th eatre director at the Gate Th eatre for nearly  years. and the Helix, Dublin. His television credits His work as an actor and director includes plays include Th e Den, Th e Late Late Toy Show and from Shaw to Shakespeare and from Ibsen he was recently featured on the What’s the Story to Aykbourne. He has both appeared in and documentary for Th e Den on RTÉ television. directed all the major plays of . His performances include Salieri in Amadeus, Walter D. Asmus fi rst directed Waiting for Astrov in Uncle Vanya, Valmont in Les Liaisons Godot for the Gate Th eatre in  and did so Dangereuses and Herod in Wilde’s . In the again in  as part of Th e Beckett Festival Gate Th eatre’s Beckett Festivals in Dublin, New and in  as part of the Beckett Centenary York, Toronto, Melbourne, London, and in Festival celebrations. Waiting for Godot has China, he performed in both Waiting for Godot been shown in Chicago, Seville, New York, and Endgame. Melbourne, Toronto, Beijing and Shanghai As a director, he began his career at the Project and has toured the United States. He is a well- Arts Centre where his productions included known German theatre director who worked works by Shaw, Arbuzov, Grahame Greene, with Samuel Beckett on many occasions for Brecht, Durrenmatt and Shakespeare. He was the stage and television, from the time they fi rst a co-founder and is current Artistic Director of met at the Schiller-Th eatre in Berlin  and Second Age Th eatre Company, for whom he has he became his assistant director on the famous directed Hamlet, , , , production of Waiting for Godot, which toured Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It. For the Gate internationally. He has directed all of Beckett´s Th eatre, Alan has directed Romeo and Juliet, plays internationally, including Waiting for Tartuff e, Present Laughter, , A Godot at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Tale of Two Cities, Th e Collection, Blithe Spirit, . His television work includes , Lady Windermere’s Fan, Th e Weeping of Angels, and Eh Joe with , and a Cyrano de Bergerac, An Ideal Husband, Arms and French version of Waiting for Godot with Roman the Man, Th e Misanthrope, Th e Importance of Polanski as Lucky. He also directed Footfalls for Being Earnest, Th e Constant Wife and A Christmas the Beckett Film Project. He was the co-direc- Carol, as well as several of his own adaptations, tor of the international Beckett-festival Beckett including Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Th e in Berlin . In , he directed the fi rst Picture of Dorian Gray and Oliver Twist. Chinese production of Endgame in Mandarin His fi lm and television work includes in Shanghai. His adaptation of Beckett’s no- Educating Rita, Th e Irish R.M., Th e Treaty, Th e vella with Australian actor Lawrence Hanging Gale, Moll Flanders, Kidnapped, Th e Held was shown at the Writers’ Festival in

CAL PERFORMANCES 21 About the Artists

Sydney in May . Also this year, he di- Taming of the Shrew; for Landmark Productions, rected Krapp’s Last Tape, Footfalls and Endgame Skylight and Th e Goat. He was also the lighting for Stages in . He was a close friend designer for the international hit, Riverdance— of Beckett’s until the writer’s death in . Th e Show. Rupert was Festival Director of the Louis le Brocquy designed the set and cos- St. Patrick’s Festival from  to  and tumes for the original production of Waiting was a key member of the team that transformed for Godot at the Gate Th eatre. Born in Dublin Ireland’s national celebrations. From  to in , Louis is Ireland’s most distinguished , he produced the opening ceremony for living painter. In , he moved to London, the Wexford Opera Festival. He was Creative winning a major prize at the Venice Biennale Director and producer of the Opening Ceremony in . In , he married the painter Anne for the Special Olympics World Summer Games Madden and left London to work in France. staged in Croke Park in June  and, before He is widely acclaimed for his evocative heads his death in August , was Creative Director of literary fi gures and fellow artists, includ- for all the entertainment and ceremonial events ing his friends Samuel Beckett, Francis Bacon, surrounding the hosting of the Ryder Cup in Seamus Heaney and Bono. In recent years, his Ireland in . early Tinker subjects and Family paintings have attracted headline attention in the international James McConnell designed the lighting for art arena. In , at his personal request, Louis Krapp’s Last Tape at BITE:  in the Barbican illustrated Beckett’s valedictory book, Stirrings Centre, London and at the New Ambassadors Still. Th e artist is represented in public collec- Th eatre in . He worked as the assistant tions from the Guggenheim in New York to the lighting designer on the original Beckett fes- Tate in London. Further information is available tival at the Gate in  and since then has at www.lebrocquy.com. toured with the Beckett Festival to New York and the Barbican Centre, London. In , Rupert Murray (–) was one of the he toured to the Melbourne Arts festival with most accomplished lighting designers and pro- Waiting for Godot, Endgame and I’ll Go On. ducers in Irish Th eatre. He has over  de- In  he was Associate Lighting Designer for sign credits around the world to his name. He the Pinter season curated by the Gate Th eatre at worked extensively with the Gate Th eatre for the Lincoln Center Festival in New York. Most many years, his most recent designs includ- recently, he designed the lighting for Eh Joe at ing Waiting for Godot, , Footfalls, the Gate Th eatre Dublin as part of the Beckett Play and Catastrophe as part of the Beckett Centenary Festival last April and also for the re- Centenary Festival celebrations in April . vival of ‘Eh Joe’ at the Duke of York theatre in Other designs for the Gate include: Old Times London’s west end in June of  and Betrayal for Pinter : A Celebration; Poor Beast in the Rain, Many Happy Returns, Th e For over  years, David Eden Productions, Eccentricities of a Nightingale, Crestfall, Jane Eyre, Ltd. (DEP) has been one of the leading and Juno and the Paycock. American organizations devoted to produc- For the Abbey Th eatre, he designed All My Sons, ing international work in the United States. In Th e Plough and the Stars, Ariel, Aristocrats, Th e , DEP was responsible for national tours of Gigli Concert, Communion, Th e Shaughraun Propeller Th eatre’s Th e Winter’s Tale, directed by and Enlightenment. For Druid, he designed Th e Edward Hall, and Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s Good Father; for b*spoke Th eatre Company, Th e Arlecchino. In , Mr. Eden curated the Drunkard; for Rough Magic, Galileo and Th e Ashton Celebration, a two-week retrospective at

22 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists the Metropolitan Opera House celebrating the DruidSynge (Fall ). Other highlights in- th birthday of Sir Frederick Ashton that fea- clude: St. Petersburg State Academic Capella tured  of the master choreographer’s ballets. National Tour (); Bolshoi Ballet National Also in , Mr. Eden produced the -city Tour ( and ); Gate Th eatre Dublin’s premiere tour of Rezo Gabriadze’s Forbidden Beckett Festival (); John F. Kennedy Christmas or Th e Doctor and Th e Patient star- Center for the Performing Arts—Arts of the ring and the fi rst national United Kingdom (summer ), Island: Arts U.S. tour of London’s Royal Court Th eatre’s from Ireland () and Art of the State: Israel . Psychosis by . Other recent criti- at  (); Lev Dodin’s Maly Th eater cally acclaimed projects of Mr. Eden’s include production of St. Petersburg’s Gaudeamus, national tours of the Batsheva Company BAM Next Wave Festival/National Tour () ( and ) and British director Declan and Brothers and Sisters, Lincoln Center Festival Donnellan’s Boris Godunov (). (); Kirov Ballet/Vaganova Ballet Academy In Fall , DEP will tour the Batsheva Project, BAM (); and the “Russian Village Dance Company and Declan Donnellan’s Festival” National Tour (, ,  and Twelfth Night. In the following seasons, DEP ) among others. will tour Dorcy Rugamba’s Th e Investigation (Fall ), the National Th eatre’s acclaimed For David Eden Productions, Ltd. double bill of Chatroom and Citizenship (Winter General Manager Erica Charpentier ), the State Ballet of Georgia with legendary Production Manager James D. Scott ballerina Nina Ananiashvili (Summer  and Visa Coordinator Stonie Darling Winter ), and the Druid Th eatre Company’s

CAL PERFORMANCES 23