SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FOR 2012 PROGRAMME
TICKETS ON SALE FOR SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM
THURSDAY 19 APRIL 2012
HAPPY DAYS, the Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, today announced tickets will be on sale from 10am Thursday 19 April for selected highlights for its inaugural Festival, 23 to 27 August 2012.
The programme will present a diverse mix of international theatre, music, art, comedy and conversation from world class Irish, UK and international artists and writers. The full HAPPY DAYS programme will be announced in June 2012. Tickets available from www.happy-days-enniskillen.com.
Early highlights include four projects that are part of the London 2012 Festival, the spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration running from 21 June until 9 September 2012 bringing together leading artists from across the world with the very best from the UK.
The London 2012 Festival events are the UK and Irish Premiere of Robert Wilson directing and starring in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape; Britain’s favourite living composer, Gavin Bryars with his Ensemble performing The Sinking of the Titanic, alongside the World Premiere of the HAPPY DAYS commission, The Beckett Songbook; Antony Gormley’s Godot Tree, unveiled for the first time in the Grand Yard at the National Trust’s Castle Coole; and film-maker Atom Egoyan, nominated for two Palme D’Or Awards and two Academy Awards, presenting his installation Steenbeckett (2002), a work from The Artangel Collection that is premiering in Ireland prior to its accession by the Tate.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Castle Coole being in the care of the National Trust, Antony Gormley’s Godot Tree will be in place for 60 days from 2 July and throughout the HAPPY DAYS festival.
Other highlights announced today include the Vienna Piano Trio performing some of Beckett’s favourite composers; Perrier Award-winner and Bafta-nominated comedian, Stuart Silver; Tenor Ian Bostridge singing Schubert’s Winterreise accompanied by pianist Julius Drake; and Lyr Williams performing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. Castle Coole, built in 1789, the year of the French Revolution, will also be the venue for the closing recital of French song and opera arias by mezzo soprano Ruby Philogene MBE, accompanied by Julius Drake, in honour Beckett’s adopted homeland.
Writers and poets discussing their relationships with Beckett and the lasting influence of his work.
will include Edna O’Brien, Lady Antonia Fraser, and John Banville amongst others. Edna O’Brien will open the Festival’s programme on Thursday 23 August at the Ardhowen Theatre, with an in-conversation event with William Crawley.
HAPPY DAYS, based in Enniskillen at the heart of the beautiful Fermanagh Lakelands in Northern Ireland, is the world’s first annual Festival dedicated to Nobel Prize-winning writer, Samuel Beckett. The Festival will celebrate Beckett’s work and influences and present some of the many international artists, writers, musicians and performers he has inspired.
Samuel Beckett, like Oscar Wilde before him, spent his formative years at Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. This remarkable island town is the perfect centre for HAPPY DAYS, a major, new destination cultural Festival embracing the entire Fermanagh Lakelands experience.
Some of Northern Ireland’s most extraordinary landmarks will host HAPPY DAYS, including Enniskillen Castle, Castle Coole, Portora Royal School, Mount Lourdes School, Blakes of the Hollow, St Michael’s Church and St Macartin’s Cathedral.
HAPPY DAYS is funded by the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Arts Council Northern Ireland, the London 2012 Festival and Fermanagh District Council.
TICKETS FOR SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS (DETAILS BELOW) ARE AVAILABLE FROM www.happy-days-enniskillen.com FROM 10AM THURSDAY 19 APRIL