Irish Rep to Present NOT BECKETT Staged Readings in February

Irish Repertory Theatre will present Not Beckett, an international rolling premiere of five new short plays presented as staged readings, which will have readings in London, Dublin, New York, Philadelphia, and at The Samuel Beckett Research Center in Reading, U.K. These plays – in conversation with Samuel Beckett’s work – will not be adaptations but will instead be loosely inspired by a seed from the Beckett canon. Written by female-identifying and non-binary playwrights of diversified Irish descent across the globe, the goal is to use the inspiration of these contemporary classic plays to create a new canon.
 
Not Beckett will be presented on Irish Rep’s Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage (132 West 22nd Street) on Monday February 24 and Tuesday February 25, 2025, at 7PM. Tickets to Not Beckett are $15 and are available at IrishRep.org.
 
Not Beckett will feature plays by Jennifer Barclay (Ripe Frenzy), FELISPEAKS (For Our Mothers), Olwen Fouéré (Finnegans Wake – riverrun), Hannah Khalil (A Museum in Baghdad), and Nicola McCartney (Easy); and direction by Nicola Murphy Dubey (Belfast Girls), Olwen Fouéré (Angel/Babel), and Barbara Rubin (The Road to Mecca).
 
Not Beckett will feature performances by Waseem Alzer (Eh Dah? Questions for my Father), Orlagh Cassidy (The Field), Diane Davis (Appropriate), Genevieve Ngosa Daniels (Anatomy of a Suicide), FELISPEAKS (WAKE), Olwen Fouéré, (A Cry From Heaven) Joe Grifasi (Endgame), and Katherine Laheen (What We Find on the Road).
 
The project is led by Chicago-bred playwright and Irish citizen Jennifer Barclay (MacDowell Fellow & National New Play Network Associate Artist, currently based in DC), London-based Irish-Palestinian playwright Hannah Khalil (playwright in residence at the Globe & Creative Fellow at the Samuel Beckett Research Centre), and London-based Creative Producer Alison Holder. With Jennifer and Hannah as Creative Directors and writers for Not Beckett, and Alison as Creative Producer, the team is working in collaboration with multiple producing theatres, and the Samuel Beckett Research Centre at Reading University, along with three additional writers. The new plays created are not adaptations, which infringe on copyright, but will instead be loosely inspired by a seed from the Beckett canon.
 
Not Beckett is supported by Culture Ireland, The T.S Eliot Foundation, Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, and International Program for Creative Collaboration and Research. 
 
Not Beckett will feature:
 

WAIT

Written and performed by FELISPEAKS
Directed by Nicola Murphy Dubey
 
Wait is about a woman who dreams on behalf of her husband and learns pretty quickly that she must dream for herself.
 
 

I CAN’T REMEMBER THE

By Nicola McCartney
Directed by Barbara Rubin
Featuring Orlagh Cassidy, Katherine Laheen, & Waseem Alzer
 
Three people are trapped in a deceased relative’s attic searching for a missing item which is vital to their future. The roof is leaking and looks like it might collapse.
 

NEVER APOLOGIZE

By Jennifer Barclay
Directed by Barbara Rubin
Featuring Orlagh Cassidy, Diane Davis, & Genevieve Ngosa Daniels
 
Three basketball players form a triangle offense; three different stages of life, and three different stages of the game. A story of rabid competition, true genius, and the terror of mediocrity — breathing the rhythm of the court and cracking open the limits of the human body.
 
 

DUET

Written and directed by Olwen Fouéré
Featuring Joe Grifasi & Katherine Laheen
 
A duet for the end of the world. Two human migrants at a specific point in their journey. Are they the last humans on earth?
 
 

THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER’S SON

By Hannah Khalil
Directed by Nicola Murphy Dubey
Featuring Olwen Fouéré
 
In a hospital room a woman tells a story to a patient. It’s a story that they have been told many times before, but never quite like this. This time the woman is telling it her way. Like it or not.
 
Currently in performances at Irish Rep is Beckett Briefs, three short plays by Samuel Beckett that run the gamut of existence from birth to the afterlife, presented on a single bill. The evening features Not I starring Sarah Street; Play starring Roger Dominic Casey, Kate Forbes, and Sarah Street; and Krapp’s Last Tape starring Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham. Beckett Briefs opens January 27, 2025, runs through March 9, 2025.

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