NEWS

12
Jun

ITI TRAVELS TO THE BARBICAN WITH COMPANY SJ TO PRESENT ROUGH FOR THEATRE I AND ACT WITHOUT WORDS II

12 Jun 2015

Company SJ, Rough for Theatre I, Trevor Knight and Raymond Keane. Photographer: Hazel Coonagh

As part of Barbican Centre’s International Beckett Season 2015, Irish Theatre Institute is working in partnership with Company SJ to produce Rough for Theatre I and Act Without Words II. On Friday 12th June, along with invited guests and representatives of the Beckett Estate, Irish Theatre Institute Co-Directors Siobhán Bourke and Jane Daly travelled to London to attend the opening night.

These companion plays draw context from each city in which they are performed while respecting Beckett’s characters and texts. Directed by Sarah Jane Scaife, the double bill features performances by Bryan Burroughs, Raymond Keane and Trevor Knight.

Seen previously on the streets of Dublin and Tokyo, Rough for Theatre I and Act Without Words II form part of Company SJ’s Beckett in the City series, and is presented in the Barbican’s atmospheric outdoor environment. Beckett in the City is a body of work that celebrates and reveal’s Beckett’s writings, as existing all around us in the city. The plays are presented to interact with different social and architectural spaces within the city, performing themselves and the city in a unique way each night.

Rough for Theatre I and Act Without Words II
On a street corner a blind beggar and a wheelchair user pass the time pondering their existence, a tragic-comedy of razor sharp wit from one of the world’s funniest writers. A and B asleep in their sleeping bags are goaded into their respective lives by an unseen force, although they never meet they carry each other through life.

Rough for Theatre I and Act Without Words II runs daily at the Barbican Centre, London from 12^th – 20th June 2015. For tickets and further information, please see here

International Beckett Season 2015 is the Barbican’s month-long programme celebrating work that spans almost thirty years of Samuel Beckett’s career.

This production is supported by Culture Ireland.