A few days ago the organisers of a world-class arts festival in Co. Fermanagh delivered some sad news: The Happy Days Enniskillen International Beckett Festival, an annual celebration of the work and influence of playwright/author Samuel Beckett, will not be going ahead this year.
Established in 2012, the festival attracted visitors and performers from all over the world – hardly surprising given Beckett’s international acclaim (he wrote in both English and French) and his pioneering influence on Late Modernism and Theatre of the Absurd. But despite growing from strength to strength over the past four years, the Beckett Festival has been called to a shuddering halt this summer because of a substantial loss of funding.
Festival director Sean Doran said in a statement that the cancellation is due to “the loss of one of our core funders”, identified by the Belfast Telegraph as none other than the Arts Council for Northern Ireland. Doran added: “We considered the option of a shorter and smaller festival with the support of our other funders but the festival would have been too pressed financially to reach the standards you have come to expect in the past four years… it has been an uphill task year on year to sustain an international arts festival to the highest of standards with limited funding in a regional rural location.”
This last point cuts particularly close to the bone. The fact that the Beckett Festival takes place in a small, relatively unknown Northern Irish town is part of what makes it so inspiring. I’ve only been lucky enough to go to the festival once, and that was in 2014 when I saw an electrifying performance of ‘En Attendant Godot’ (‘Waiting For Godot’) in its original French, and a multi-screen installation of ‘Not I’ by artist Neil Jordan in the eerie cellars of Castle Coole. Needless to say, the experience of seeing such high-quality international theatre and art against the unexpected backdrop of Fermanagh’s sweeping green countryside was something truly special. It made me feel proud of Northern Ireland, and excited by the endless possibilities for arts and culture to resonate far outside of, and perhaps in spite of, of the big commercial centres of the world.
It seemed especially appropriate that it was Beckett who was being celebrated in this context. His plays are stubbornly resistant to any box you try to put them in, and they go completely against the grain of pretty much any theatrical convention you could think of. Unconcerned with linear plots or naturalistic representations of real life, Beckett instead focusses on absurd scenarios that are disturbing, oblique and deeply profound in their ability to defamiliarize patterns of human behaviour and relationships, and to present startling new insights as a result. With few props and fewer characters, Beckett’s stark, minimalist style makes his plays particularly suitable for performance in any setting, under any circumstances, to be enjoyed by anyone.
It would be a great loss for the local cultural scene, and for literature and theatre fans in Ireland and beyond, if the Beckett Festival came to a permanent end when it’s only just beginning. The funding issue reportedly arose from the failure of the organisers to provide the Arts Council with records of their expenditure from last year. The Belfast Telegraph are pointing the finger at Sean Doran, bringing up losses incurred by arts festivals he’s headed up in the past, and “rumours of clashes” with colleagues years ago. But it seems highly unlikely that this is the whole story. Running an arts festival is complex and challenging, especially under current economic conditions which have seen Arts Council funding cut by 11.14% since 2014, along with similarly devastating cuts to museums, libraries and languages. Anyone struggling to keep culture alive in these dire circumstances deserves our solidarity and support.
This is perhaps the worst possible time to do what the organisers of the Beckett Festival are trying to do – boldly assert Northern Ireland’s rich literary and cultural heritage on the international stage. But to their credit, they’re sticking at it – Doran’s statement is clear about that, adding: “We would like to reassure our audiences that this announcement is not intended as a cessation. The Board and ourselves will now try to persuade our core funders, and indeed new funders, to help us secure a more stable financial future”.
I sincerely hope that the Beckett Festival, and the atmosphere of international artistic innovation it cultivates, will be back next summer, and that it continues to grow. It’s what Beckett’s legacy deserves, and moreover, it’s a shining example of the kind of future Northern Ireland deserves.
(Belfast, 11.6.16)
Pictured: Ian McElhinney in ‘Stirrings Still’.
The Truant Pen 