Works By Samuel Beckett and Caryl Churchill To Be Presented This June At The Coronet Theatre

Works from two great playwrights who put experimentation with verbal communication at the heart of their work will be presented by celebrated international theatre companies this June.

Caryl Churchill's play of familial mis-communication L'amore Del Cuore (Heart's Desire) comes from Italian company Lacasadargilla (13-15 June), and is followed by three of Beckett's trailblazing stories in The Beckett Trilogy from Coronet regulars Gare St Lazare Ireland. (20 - 22 June).

They round off a truly international multi-artform season – details of the rest of the season, which include poetry, theatre and music are also below.

lacasadargilla presents

L'amore Del Cuore (Heart's Desire)

By Caryl Churchill

Directed by Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli

Thur 13 - Sat 15 June 

One of Caryl Churchill's most revolutionary plays, L'amore Del Cuore (Heart's Desire) dissects language and how we communicate, in a hilarious and touching exploration of family and relationships.  “It is both one of the funniest short plays ever written and a reminder of the savagery that often lies beneath the surface of family life.” – Michael Billington.

A family anxiously awaits their daughter's return from Australia. Churchill's play races through a series of scenarios repetitions and experiments, using verbal gymnastics to veer in unexpected directions. This adaptation, from acclaimed Italian theatre maker Lisa Ferlazzo Natoli and company lacasadargilla, employs movement, the Italian tradition of Commedia del'Arte, and Churchill's text to push the limits of language. “Amazing. A work of infinite and fascinating restarts, rewinds and still images” – Rodolfo Di Giammarco

Cast: Tessa Battaiato, Tania Garribba, Fortunato Leccese, Alice Palazzi and Francesco Villano

Presented in Italian with English surtitles.

Caryl Churchill is one of the UK's most influential playwrights, known for her breaking of theatrical tradition. Many of her plays are now considered modern classics including Top Girls, Cloud Nine and A Number. Churchill's work is currently enjoying unprecedented success in Italy.

lacasadargilla is well known in Italy for its productions of original texts, literary adaptations and contemporary plays. The ensemble builds its projects on the concepts of time and mythographies, as well as on the linguistic, psychic and personal legacies that bind us to our past and to our future. All performances have an architectural approach, with a focus on linguistic and cinematic devices as well as on physical precision. Working across the arts, they examine a theme or a text and its fundamental issues, and build a dialogue between the different artistic disciplines - from figurative arts to philosophy, publishing, cinema – and theatre in the strict sense.

Thur 13 - Sat 15 June, 7:30pm

£20, £30, £40 standard. Concessions 20% off

Running time: Approx 1 hour Age Guidance: 14+

Gare St Lazare Ireland presents

The Beckett Trilogy 

Molloy, Malone Dies & The Unnamable

By Samuel Beckett

Performed by Conor Lovett

Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett

Lighting design by Simon Bennison

Thur 20 - Sat 22 June

Press Night - Thur 20 June

Gare St Lazare Ireland return to The Coronet Theatre with their acclaimed Beckett Trilogy. The company's precise and elegant work makes Beckett accessible to all, highlighting the humour and humanity in his writing.

The three novels Molloy, Malone Dies & The Unnamable, written shortly after World War II at the same time as Waiting for Godot, made up what he considered ‘the important work'. Acclaimed actor Conor Lovett and award-winning director Judy Hegarty Lovett give powerful life to the essence of each of these novels.

In Molloy a man recounts his effort to visit his ageing mother. En route he is arrested for indecently resting and encounters an old woman and her dog with dire consequences. Molloy is one of Beckett's most poignant characters whose view of society, and the world, is as funny as it is true.

Malone Dies begins with the narrator Malone on his deathbed, telling himself stories as he bides his time. He finally hits on a character, McMann, whose story involving an asylum, a lunatic nurse and an Easter Sunday outing to the islands, results in a bloodbath worthy of a Tarantino movie.

The Unnamable dispenses with story entirely as the nameless narrator tries to make sense of his existence. Beckett's beautiful investigation of inner turmoil is intensely unforgettable. The novel ends with Beckett's famous lines, “I can't go on, I must go on, I'll go on.”

Gare St Lazare Players director Judy Hegarty Lovett and actor Conor Lovett have staged over 20 Beckett titles covering drama, radio drama, short stories and novels. They were last at The Coronet in 2022 with the sell-out How It Is (Part 2) performed by Lovett and Stephen Dillane.

Gare St. Lazare Players have toured internationally with their critically acclaimed presentations of Beckett's prose works. In Ireland they have toured to over 60 theatres and a further 80 theatres around the globe. In all they have performed Beckett in 83 cities in 21 countries on 5 continents. They have recently opened their centre for the study of Beckett in France: Atelier Samuel Beckett - Mericourt 

https://resartis.org/listings/atelier-samuel-beckett/

Thu 20 - Sat 22 June, 7:30pm

£40, £30, £20 standard. Concessions 20% off

Running Time: Approx 3 hours including an interval

Still to come this season at The Coronet Theatre

Poetry Club - Curated by The Coronet's Head of Poetry, Marion Manning, Poetry Club presents the most exciting contemporary international poets. Two recently highly commended poets, Mary Jean Chan and Charlotte Shevchenko Knight, perform an evening of poetry in The Coronet's atmospheric bar. Thur 9 May

Good Luck, Cathrine Frost! Hit solo-show from the award-winning Det Andre Teatret has played to sold-out houses in Norway since opening in 2022. An existential comedy theatre show about philosophy, childbirth and public health - with a touch of dubstep and karate. Fri 10 - Sat 11 May

Jean-Michel Bernard, film composer and pianist, returns to The Coronet with two intimate concerts. On 16 May he plays film music from his albums Piano Cinema 1 and 2, (with special guests dancer Fukiko Takase and vocalist Kimiko Ono). On 17 May Jean- Michel Bernard plays Lalo Schifrin is a tribute to acclaimed film composer Lalo Schifrin (Mission: Impossible, Bullitt, Dirty Harry).(with guest singers Noah Francis Johnson and Kimiko Ono). Thur 16 - Fri 17 May

Dead Poets Live from the T. S. Eliot Foundation. This season they present The Haunter, the enigmatic story of Thomas Hardy, Emma Hardy and Florence Dugdale. Featuring Toby Jones, Lesley Sharp and Rosie Sheehy. Sun 19 May.

Andrew Poppy Mister Poppy: Jelly Composer, musician, vocalist and record producer Andrew Poppy's vast portfolio has seen scores for theatre, opera, film, contemporary dance and art installations. His latest project, Jelly, a challenging and intensely-detailed spoken and sung solo performance, sees him adopt his Mister Poppy persona. Sat 1 June

HOW TO BOOK:

020 3642 6606

thecoronettheatre.com (£2.50 booking fee)

In person at the Box Office (Mon - Sat, 10am - 5.30pm)

Address: The Coronet Theatre, 103 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3LB

Nearest tube: Notting Hill Gate (Central, Circle and District lines)

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