HAPPY DAYS ENNISKILLEN INTERNATIONAL BECKETT FESTIVAL The fourth annual Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival begins today (Thursday) and runs until Monday, August 3.

The Ardhowen is pleased to host three undoubted highlights of the Festival with the Berliner Ensemble in their first visit to Ireland, presenting ‘Warten Auf Godot’ (Waiting For Godot) another Irish premier from France’s leading choreographer Maguy Marin with ‘May B’ and, Enniskillen’s own, Adrian Dunbar directs ‘The Waste Land’ by T. S. Eliot.

MAY B France’s leading choreographer Maguy Marin brings her dance company to perform in Ireland for the first time, presenting ‘May B’ in The Ardhowen. Created in 1981 with special permission from Beckett, Marin’s ‘May B’ is a seminal work inspired by Beckett’s writing, with music by Franz Schubert, Gilles de Binoche and Gavin Bryars. Performances of ‘May B’ take place on Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25 at 8.30pm and on Sunday, July 26, at 3pm.

‘May B’ sets in motion the parade of a drifting human condition; the 10 dancers onstage are a composite of Beckett’s characters, plastered with grey chalk, clad in ill-fitting night clothes, they trudge their alienated way in unison - remarkably precise in every movement - toward self-discovery. We see them register an increasing range of emotions - hostility, fear and tenderness.

Inspired by the writings of Samuel Beckett, the title referring to his affinity for the word ‘perhaps’, this work lays the ground for a secret deciphering of our most intimate, hidden and ignored gestures. When Beckett’s characters yearn for stillness, they cannot help moving; be it a little or a lot, they move.

WARTEN AUF GODOT/WAITING FOR GODOT Vladimir and Estragon, two men with no history, meet every day in the middle of nowhere, waiting for Godot. They don’t know who Godot is, what he wants from them or what they should expect from him or indeed if he is going to show up at all. They don’t know who Pozzo and Lucky are – one a master, the other a servant – and why they keep meeting them over and over again. “In this tremendous confusion only one thing is certain: we are waiting for Godot to arrive“ says Vladimir to Estragon.

Founded by Bertolt Brecht, one of Germany’s foremost theatre companies, The Berliner Ensemble, will make its first visit to Ireland with their radical production of Beckett’s ‘Warten Auf Godot’ (Waiting for Godot) created by the legendary Hungarian-born playwright and director George Tabori. It caused a storm when it was first produced by the Berliner Ensemble on the centenary of Beckett’s birth in 2006 and is considered by the Beckett Festival director Sean Doran to be the best production of Godot he has ever seen. The cast comprises Michael Rothmann (Estragon), Axel Werner (Vladimir), Roman Kaminski (Lucky), Gerd Kunath (Pozzo), Peter Luppa (Boy) and performances take place at The Ardhowen on Friday, July 31 and Saturday, August 1, at 8.30pm and in Sunday, August 2, at 5pm THE WASTE LAND by T. S. Eliot Acclaimed Enniskillen born actor and Festival Associate, Adrian Dunbar will curate a specially commissioned presentation of ‘The Waste Land’ to mark the 50th Anniversary of the death of the writer, T. S. Eliot. Under Adrian’s direction, the presentation will feature newly scored music by Irish composer Nick Roth evoking the 1920’s, the era when the poem was written, woven with the text and complimented by images. Performances of ‘The Waste Land’ take place on Saturday, August 1, at 1pm and on Sunday, August 2, at 2.30pm.

Details of the full programme for the Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival can be found at www.happy-days-enniskillen.com and tickets can be purchased on-line, by telephone on 028 6632 5440 or in person at the Visitor Information Centre.