The End begins in Galway theatre

CORK couple Conor Lovett and Judy Hegarty Lovett are touring the country with their adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s short story The End.
Their adaptation of it is a one-man show, performed by Conor, with Judy directing.
The story is an account of the last few days of an elderly man’s life as he struggles to live, although he is quite willing to die. After being kicked out of an institution he fends for himself in a state between his dreams and reality.
While they are not coming to Clare, theatre lovers can catch the production at the Town Hall Theatre in Galway on March 29.
The couple are huge admirers of Beckett and have devoted a lot of their energies on adapting his writings. “We’ve focussed on a few writers over the last ten years but mostly Beckett. We’ve also done a Moby Dick show, we’re currently working on a piece by an American writer Will Eno,” says Judy.
She says they like “just about everything” about his work and says that while The End is rather dark, it’s also quite funny.
Of the adaptation, she notes, “It’s the story of a guy who remains nameless throughout the piece, but he’s expelled from some kind of institution, we’re not sure where. He’s on his own fending for himself and he comes across some characters on his journey, and it’s about how he survives, what he observes from being out in the world on his own again.”
Over the last ten years the couple have travelled to 73 cities in 25 countries around the world, reflecting the worldwide appeal of Beckett.
She says that a lot of work has to go into getting Conor’s performance right. “If we’re using the whole text or part of it, we adapt what we’re using for the stage. Then we’d go into the rehearsal room and we have to get the text to a place where it sounds like there is no middleman and that the words belong to Conor. It has to be made as natural as possible and as addressed to the audience as possible. That takes a bit of time, to absorb it and get a full understanding of the text.”