Arts Over Borders 2018 Brochure

Arts Over Borders 

presents 

3rd Lughnasa 

FrielFest: 

Derry~Londonderry 

& Donegal 

6th Happy Days: 

International 

Beckett Festival 

Enniskillen 

August 2–19, 2018

northern literary lands 

Principal Partners 

Major Partners 

Supporting Partners 

Community Partners 

Festival Donors 

Peter & Fiona Espenhahn, Mary Heaney, 

Joanna McVey, Tim & Chris Ungar, Michael & Ruth West 

Thanks 

A special thank you to the Beckett Estate and the Friel Estate.

‘Happy Days is democratising Beckett. Devoted fidelity to Beckett’s 

vision works here. …this is brave programming’ 

FINANCIAL TIMES 

‘(Happy Days) has become one of the most enthralling festivals in 

the cultural calendar. One senses that Beckett himself, who once 

wrote of ‘secret spaces where nobody ever comes’ and ‘sites of a 

stirring beyond coming and going, of a being so light and free that 

it is as the being of nothing’’, would have approved. 

THE OBSERVER 

‘Musicians, poets, actors, performers, artists, talkers, doers and 

watchers celebrate his life and works on land and beneath the 

ground; on water, by water and under soft rain. In this island town, 

reflections and precipitation blur boundaries 

between earth and sky’ 

THE OBSERVER 

‘…artistic excellence of the highest order. Far from being a 

po-faced affair, its programmes are laced with wit and some 

degree of eccentricity’ 

THE STAGE 

‘Happy Days is a festival filled with good surprises… (it) deserves 

extra credit for reviving May B – a gem of European dance theatre 

that deserves to be much more widely known’. 

THE GUARDIAN 

‘a festive and buoyant atmosphere that works strangely well with 

Beckett’s famously dark, difficult and often mordantly humorous 

oeuvre…an admirable balance between a focus on the writer’s own 

pieces, and on other artistic events with associations to Beckett and 

his work’. 

NEW YORK TIMES 

‘…must rank as the most paradoxical arts festival on Earth. A 

chance to soul-search and sightsee at the same time. Can you have 

your Beckettian cake and eat it? Once a year, I think, it’s allowed’. 

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Arts Over Borders - Artist Honorary Patrons 

Laurie Anderson 

John Banville 

Kevin Barry 

Ciaran Carson 

Roma Downey 

Adrian Dunbar 

Lisa Dwan 

Roy Foster 

Philip Glass 

Nick Laird 

Eimear McBride 

Lisa McInerney 

Sinead Morrissey 

Paul Muldoon 

Ohad Naharin 

Glenn Patterson 

Tom Paulin 

Fiona Shaw 

Raja Shehadeh 

Colm Toibin 

Robert Wilson 

Arts Over Borders - Board of Trustees 

Chairperson Mary Heaney 

Mary Campbell 

Peter Espenhahn 

Carlo Gebler 

Tess Maginess 

William Morrison 

Oliver O’Connor 

Paul Sternberg 

and a very special thank 

you to our Vice-Chair 

Alison McArdle (2014-2018) 

who has returned to 

Australia. 

Arts Over Borders - Festival Staff 

Festival Manager (Happy Days): Siobhan O’Connor 

Festival Manager (Lughnasa FrielFest): Jonathan Burgess 

Artist Liaison (Happy Days): Sally Rees 

Odyssey Manager (FrielFest) Arthur Oliver-Brown 

Music Manager (Happy Days): Matthew Murphy 

Production Manager (Happy Days): Barry McKinney 

Copywriter: Alistair Daniel 

Programme Design: Keith Connolly, Tonic Design - tonicdesign01@gmail.com 

Our thanks to 

Enniskillen 

Monsignor Peter O’Reilly, 

Dean Kenneth Hall, 

John Graham, 

Barbara Johnston, 

Heather White, 

Enniskillen Royal Grammar, 

Lord Brookeborough, 

Jimmy Rogers, 

Ian Davidson, 

Bryony May, 

Hazel Johnson & 

the Jolly Sandwich 

Derry-Londonderry 

Marty Melarkey, the 

Sandwich Company, 

Warehouse Café, 

Mark Lusby, Karen Friel. 

Others: Orla Constant, 

Nessa McGill and a BIG 

thank you to all our 

volunteers. 

Donegal 

Fr. Donoghue, Glenties 

Patricia McBride 

Traolach O’Fionnain

W E L C O M E 

Welcome to Arts over Borders (Ireland’s presenting body for cross-border 

arts festivals) & welcome to its 3rd Lughnasa FrielFest and 6th Happy Days: 

Enniskillen International Beckett Festival. 

Our bio-festival model is a bespoke format which takes its inspiration from 

the genius of a single artist and is curated with a strong sense of place, both 

rural & urban, throughout border communities and landscapes - what we 

now call the northern literary lands. 

Over three weekends in August (Gaelic, Lughnasa), this year’s projects 

extend across six counties from Ballycastle in Co. Antrim to Portnoo in Co. 

Donegal, from Omagh in Co. Tyrone to Magheroarty, from Derry- 

Londonderry city to outside Blacklion in Co. Cavan and from Magilligan 

in Co. Derry-Londonderry to Enniskillen in Co. Fermanagh, taking place 

in underground caves, islands on a lake, beaches, the Walls of Derry, village 

halls, cafes, arts centres, schools, a crypt, a roadside, a pier and a mountain! 

First and foremost though our heightened site-specific experiences are 

there to underpin the artist’s work. 

For six years, we have presented festivals on Beckett, Friel and Wilde in 

Ireland’s border counties but August 2018 will be our last festivals before 

Brexit. And so we offer two experiential Beckett Border projects: Three (or 

more) Billboards Outside Enniskillen & Sligo and Purgatorio: Walking for Waiting 

for Godot in the Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Geopark. 

We have chosen Homer's two great poetic epics to sit either side of the 

border: the Odyssey being to Donegal - the county with Ireland's longest 

coastline - as the Iliad, epic of all epics, is to Derry - the city with the longest 

siege in British and Irish history. 

We thank all our artists – local, national and international – our small but 

resourceful compliment of staff, our ever supportive and enabling Board 

of Trustees and all our courageous partners and funders. 

Seán Doran & Liam Browne 

Festival Curators-DoranBrowne 

{www.artsoverborders.com}

3rd Lughnasa 

FrielFest: 


& Donegal 

T H E O D y S S E y B y H O M E r 

T H E I L I A D B y H O M E r 

FA I T H H E A L E r B y B r I A n F r I E L 

T H r E E S I S T E r S B y B r I A n F r I E L ( T r A n S L AT I O n ) 

L I v I n g Q uA rT E r S B y B r I A n F r I E L 

T H E yA LTA g A M E B y B r I A n F r I E L 

A F T E r P L Ay B y B r I A n F r I E L 

L I S A M C g E E I n C O n v E r S AT I O n 

J E z B u T T E r W O rT H I n C O n v E r S AT I O n 

C O S k u n k A r A D E M I r Q uA rT E T 

r u B y P H I LO g E n E ( M E z zO S O P r A n O ) 

S P I r I T uA LS A n D S O n g S 

A n D r E I B O n D A r E n kO ( B A r I TO n E ) 

r u S S I A n S O n g r E C I TA L 

F r I E L F E S T D I A r y 

6 

8 

1 2 

2 6 

2 8 

3 0 

3 1 

2 2 

2 3 

2 9 

9 

3 2 

3 8

1 0 

4 0 

1 4 

1 7 

1 8 

2 0 

24 

3 6 

3 7 

1 6 

2 5 

3 5 

3 9 

P u r g ATO r I O - WA L k I n g FO r WA I T I n g FO r 

g O D OT B y S A M u E L B E C k E T T 

T H r E E ( O r M O r E ) B I L L B O A r D S O u T S I D E 

E n n I S k I L L E n & S L I g O 

W H AT W H E r E B y S A M u E L B E C k E T T 

n OT I & PA S M O I B y S A M u E L B E C k E T T 

T H E O L D T u n E B y S A M u E L B E C k E T T 

T H E D E v E n I S H I S L A n D T r I P T y C H 

g u y S TAg g & 

C A r LO g E B L E r : I n T r O D u C TO r y TA L k 

T H E P O rTO r A r E A D I n g S & OT H E r 

r E A D I n g S / TA L k S 

C O L I n S A L M O n - B E C k E T T r E A D E r I n 

r E S I D E n C E 

C A M I L L E O ’ S u L L I vA n ( S I n g E r ) 

W I n T E r r E I S E : C H r I S T I A n n E S TOT I J n ( M E z zO S O P r A n O ) 

J u L I E n vA n M E L L A E rT S ( B A r I TO n E ) 

F r E n C H S O n g r E C I TA L 

H A P P y D Ay S D I A r y 

6th Happy Days: 

International 

Beckett Festival 

Enniskillen 


T H E O D y S S E y 

by Homer 

Rhapsodes (Actors) Maxine Peake, Imogen Stubbs, 

Natascha McElhone, Frances Barber 

Thursday 9 August, 3pm 

Downhill Beach, 

Co. Derry~Londonderry 

( M A x I n E P E A k E ) 

Friday 10 August, T I M E T B C 

killahoey Beach, 

Co. Donegal 

( M A x I n E P E A k E ) 

Saturday 11 August, 2.30pm 

Portstewart Beach, 


( I M O g E n S T u B B S ) 

Sunday 12 August, 2.30pm 

Magilligan Beach, 


( I M O g E n S T u B B S ) 

Wednesday 15 August, 7pm 

Ballycastle Beach, 

Co. Antrim 

( S E E W E B S I T E ) 

Thursday 16 August, 7pm 

narin Beach, Portnoo, 

Co. Donegal 

( S E E W E B S I T E ) 

Friday 17 August, 7pm 

Carrickfinn Beach 

Co. Donegal 

( n ATA S C H A M C E L H O n E ) 

Saturday 18 August, 5pm 

Magheroarty Beach, 

Co. Donegal 

( F r A n C E S B A r B E r ) 

Sunday 19 August, 6pm 

Lisfannon Beach, 

Co. Donegal 

( F r A n C E S B A r B E r ) 

Tickets: £15 ( n I ) / €15 ( r O I ) | Duration: 60mins 

CELEBRATING FRIEL’S PASSION for all things Homeric and transposing the 

story from Greece to Europe’s western edge the festival presents readings 

from Homer’s great epic of voyage, shipwreck and homecoming across 

beaches in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. From the northeast 

of Ballycastle (where Greek hexameters meet the hexagonal rock 

formations of the Giant’s Causeway) to the north-west’s sweeping sands of 

Narin & Portnoo in Co. Donegal the readings move in and out of the 

exhilaratingly beautiful indented coastline and back and forth across the 

border. And along the way the Greek myths of Homer meet Irish myths - 

such as Balor the one-eyed giant or Finn McCool. It finishes on the 

Inishowen Peninsula, the safe harbour of Brian Friel’s own Ithaca homeland. 

Inside a pitched tent, an acclaimed actor reads from Emily Wilson’s superb 

new translation (the first in English by a woman), accompanied by Greek 

food, live Greek music and the crashing of the Atlantic waves. 

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I M A g E : © F I D E L I S 


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T H E I L I A D 

by Homer 

Rhapsode (Actor) Niall Cusack 

E P I S O D E 1 

Friday 10 August, 6.30pm 

Outside Walls below Walker’s Plinth 



grand Parade at Walker’s Plinth 

( W E S T FA C I n g ) 



Double Bastion at verbal Arts Centre 

( S O u T H FA C I n g ) 


Sunday 12 August, 11am 

East Wall at Artillery Bastion 



Church bastion at St. Columb’s Cathedral ( E A S T FA C I n g ) 

*Followed by ruby Philogene M B E - Mezzo Soprano & Trevor Burnside - Piano 

Concert in St. Columb’s Cathedral | Duration 30mins l Free* 

Tickets: £10 | Duration: 60mins 

BRIAN FRIEL LOVED HOMER and when it comes to a reading of The Iliad, in 

which Homer recounts the story of the Siege of Troy (Ilium meaning Troy) 

with Achilles, Hector, Helen, Odysseus & Agamemnon, where better to 

hold it than on the Walls of Derry, a city famous for its own siege. Five 

episodes from the epic will be read in a military-style tent; the opening 

episode will take place on a grassy knoll just outside the Walls overlooking 

the Bogside (with its terraced rows of houses reimagined as the camped 

tents of the Greeks). The remaining four episodes will be held on different 

bastions within the Walls surrounded on the Saturday by the dramatic 

soundscape of the Apprentice Boys' marching bands. 

To conclude the Iliad readings and as a counterbalance to a weekend of 

brutal descriptions of war and its aftermath, a short concert of balm with 

spirituals and songs will be given by opera and gospel singer Ruby Philogene, 

a first prize winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award and who has sung at, 

amongst other places, the Royal Opera House and Deutsche Oper Berlin 

and at the special invitation of Princess Diana. 


PurgATOrIO: WALkIng FOr 

WAITIng FOr gODOT 

Tragi-Comedy for the Border 

Marble Arch Caves unESCO global geo-park 

W E E k E n D 1 

Saturday 4 August, 10am 



Saturday 18 August, 10am 


( A L L P E r F O r M A n C E S n E C E S S I TAT E W A L k I n g F r O M 8 A M O r B E F O r E 

S E E W E B S I T E F O r C A S T A n D F u r T H E r D E TA I L S ) 

Tickets: £15 

A Country Road. A Mountain. A Tree. Morning 

IN ‘WAITING FOR GODOT’ it is usually the characters of the play, Vladimir 

and Estragon who do the walking and suffer sore feet for their troubles but 

in this unique site-specific Godot it is the audience who walk, through the 

Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geo-park (the first transnational geopark 

in the world), through the existential Beckettian landscape, to gather 

at the Irish border around Antony Gormley’s Tree for Waiting for Godot 

(specially installed for the occasion) for a rehearsed reading of the play. 

This is participatory, experiential drama at its 

most extreme and on the last Happy Days before 

Brexit the festival is culturally occupying the 

border with a quintessentially Irish play that 

nonetheless has universal appeal, whose themes 

could not be more relevant to our times - themes 

of waiting, of the sense of the days repeating 

themselves, of despair, of pathos, of homelessness, 

but all of this lifted by the hopefulness of 

great art. 

The Festival presents its 

first Waiting for Godot 

in English, subsequent 

to previously presented 

productions from The 

Berliner Ensemble in 

german Warten Auf 

Godot directed by 

george Tabori (2015), 

Theatre nono in French 

En Attendant Godot 

(2014) and new york 

new yiddish rep in 

yiddish Wartn Af Godot 

(2013). This site-specific 

godot is a sequel to the 

Dante-inspired Inferno 

(2013). 

{10}

{www.artsoverborders.com} 

‘It arrives at the custom-house as it were, with no 

luggage, no passport and nothing to declare yet it 

gets through, as might a pilgrim from Mars…’ 

Kenneth Tynan on Waiting for Godot, Observer 1953

{12}

FA I T H H E A L E r 

by Brian Friel 

A Promenade Reading 

Location: Pick up at Market Hall, glenties | Duration: 4 hours 





Frank - See website 

grace - Tamsin greig 

Teddy - Alex Jennings 





Frank - rory kinnear 

grace - Laura Donnelly 

Teddy - See website 

Tickets: €25 ( I n C L u D E S P I C n I C A n D B u S ) 

P L E A S E n O T E : F O r T H E F I n A L A C T 4 O F W E E k E n D 1 , S I n g L E T I C k E T S W I L L B E S O L D 

BRIAN FRIEL’S DARING four-act monologue masterpiece, Faith Healer (1979) 

has acquired cult status with audiences and actors alike. The play is a journey 

to Ballybeg, Friel’s fictional town, and is set during the time of Lughnasa 

(the Gaelic word for August). One story, three storytellers, four monologues; 

no director, no rehearsals, each actor offers his or her interpretation of their 

role. The first three take place in a different village hall (Edininfagh - Frank, 

Portnoo - Grace and Ardara - Teddy) and the audience travels by bus, 

stopping along the way for an interval barbecue on Portnoo Pier (the setting 

for Friel’s Wonderful Tennessee). The final act is held in the ballroom of the 

Highlands Hotel in Glenties, the town where Brian Friel once summerholidayed 

as a child and is now buried. 

It’s an utterly unique and extraordinary way to experience this great play, 

an exploration of truth, lies and the mystery of inspiration. 


FESTIVAL NEW 

PRODUCTION 

W H AT W H E r E 

by Samuel Beckett 

Produced by Kabosh, Directed by Paula McFetridge 

Designed by Liz Cullinane 

Secret Location ( B u S D E PA r T S E n n I S k I L L E n C A S T L E ) 

Thursday 2 August: 7.00pm 

Friday 3 August: 7.30pm 

Saturday 4 August: 4.30pm & 6.30pm 

Sunday 5 August: 1.30pm 

Cast: Michael Condron, Tony Flynn, vincent Higgins, neil keery 

Tickets: £12 ( I n C L u D E S B u S ) 

WHAT WHERE (1983) is Beckett’s last play. ‘We are the last five’ says a voice 

though only four characters appear throughout. It’s a powerful political 

drama which explores what information must be divulged and when…..if 

ever. ’You’ll be given the works until you confess’ says the voice but what 

must be confessed? Do we act alone? Who or 

what will save us? This powerful new production 

from Belfast-based Kabosh is directed by Festival 

Associate Paula McFetridge and takes place in a 

secret location somewhere in Fermanagh. 

Previous secret 

locations included 

Beckett’s Catastrophe at 

Pubble Church (2014), 

Beckett's Stirring’s Still 

at Castle Archdale (2015) 

and Beckett's From an 

abandoned work in an 

abandoned house off 

the Shore road (2017). 

{14}


C A M I L L E O ’ S u L L I vA n 

Ireland’s Cabaret Chanteuse 

Enniskillen royal grammar, The Steele Hall ( F O r M E r Ly P O r T O r A ) 


Tickets: £15 

‘sexy, wild and dangerous’ 

The Telegraph 

OVER THE LAST DECADE, chanteuse Camille O’Sullivan has established a 

reputation as a uniquely gifted performer singing in English and French, 

capable of driving an audience into raptures or bringing a tear to the eye. 

Her bold interpretations of everyone from Jacques Brel and Kurt Weill to 

Tom Waits and Nick Cave wring every drop of drama from a song (she has 

starred in the Olivier Award-winning musical La Clique and in Conall 

Morrison’s highly-acclaimed, Woyzeck in Winter), and Beckett & Oscar Wilde’s 

old school of Portora (now known as Enniskillen Royal Grammar) is the 

perfect setting for her Parisian cabaret theatrical blend of spectacle, 

seduction and charm. 

{16}

n OT I & PA S M O I 


FESTIVAL NEW 

PRODUCTION 

Ardhowen Theatre By the Lake 

Saturday 4 August, 2pm | Sunday 5 August, 12.30pm 


THIS ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION, which premiered at Happy Days’ Paris Beckett 

Festival (2016), features a first ever back-to-back performance of Beckett’s 

Not I and its French-language version, Pas Moi by the award-winning Frenchbased, 

Irish actress Clara Simpson. In 2010 in a Corn Exchange production 

Clara played Winnie in Happy Days directed by Annie Ryan. 

Not I is a haunting piece, a sonic masterpiece, in which an unnamed woman, 

visible only by her mouth, reflects on her life in a torrent of words. To hear 

Beckett’s two languages side by side in one sitting 

with, as Clara puts it, ‘no transition, one language 

weaving into the other, to become a single piece’ is 

as intense and mind-blowing a thirty minutes as you 

will experience in a theatre. 

Previous Festival Not I 

productions included 

Lisa Dwan at Portora 

royal School (Beckett’s 

School) in 2012 and the 

Marble Arch Caves as 

part of the Inferno 

triptych in 2013. 


‘...and we only after meeting once in a blue moon’ 

The Old Tune 

{18}

T H E O L D T u n E 


Directed by Conall Morrison 

Starring Barry McGovern & Eamon Morrissey 

FESTIVAL NEW 

PRODUCTION 

Strule Arts Centre, Omagh 

Wednesday 1 August 1, 8pm 

The regal, Enniskillen 


Saturday 4 August, 3pm and 8.30pm 



TWO MEN LIVING on the margins of society, struggling to communicate, 

facing isolation and memory loss; it’s not hard to see why Beckett was drawn 

to his friend Robert Pinget’s play La Manivelle (The Crank) and offered to 

translate it into English. But Beckett went further than most translators, 

transposing the setting to Dublin and changing the characters, Gorman and 

Cream, to Irishmen. 

This new production is directed by Conall Morrison (whose Woyzeck in 

Winter received rave reviews in Galway and London last year). It’s being 

staged in The Regal in the heart of Enniskillen, a perfect setting with its 

atmosphere of faded 1950’s glory, and it stars two iconic Irish actors, Barry 

McGovern and Eamon Morrissey. This is a rare opportunity to see both 

The Old Tune itself and two of Ireland’s finest theatre actors performing on 

stage together. 


D E v E n I S H I S L A n D 

T r I P T y C H 

The Tower by W B Yeats – a reading 

…but the clouds… by Samuel Beckett – a screening 

Beethoven String Trio – a movement 

FESTIVAL NEW 

PRODUCTION 

Devenish Island, Lough Erne 

Boat departs from the round O, Shore road, Enniskillen 

Friday 3 August 

Departs 6.30pm 

Saturday 4 August 


Sunday 5 August 


Tickets: £15 ( I n C L u D I n g B O AT J O u r n E y ) Duration: 2hrs 

DEVENISH HELD A SPECIAL PLACE in Beckett’s memory, as he and other pupils 

from Portora rowed out to the island every morning and this three-part 

event pays tribute by presenting three connected pieces in different locations 

on the island. The atmospheric boat journey still harks back to the history 

of the lakes as the ancient highway for early Christian pilgrimage. 

Yeats’s famous poem The Tower is performed by an unseen actor reading 

from inside the beautiful Round Tower. The poem inspired Beckett’s 1977’s 

television play … but the clouds…, which is screened in the hut on the island, 

while for the concluding element a string trio performs a movement from 

Beethoven in the ruins of the Augustine abbey. With sunset imminent each 

evening this intimate and multi-sensory Devenish Island Triptych promises to 

be a spiritually uplifting experience in a landscape so associated with Beckett. 

{20}


L I S A M c g E E 

I n C O n v E r S AT I O n 

great Hall, Magee Campus, ulster university 


Tickets: £10 

AS A CURTAIN-RAISER to the presentation of Brian Friel’s Hiberno-English 

translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Derry girl Lisa McGee opens the 

second weekend of Lughnasa Frielfest, 2018. ‘If you aren’t already watching,’ 

raved The Guardian after the first episode of Derry Girls, ‘then catch yourself 

on.’ Lisa McGee’s deliciously tart comedy series about a gang of schoolgirls 

(and one boy) at a convent school in Derry ~Londonderry in the early 1990s, 

was a runaway hit and, like Friel, captured the humour and complexity of 

family life. McGee, who created the RTÉ show Raw and the sitcom London 

Irish is also an award-winning playwright, and for this homecoming event 

she talks about her admiration for Friel and the extraordinary success of 

Derry Girls. 

'Daft, profane and absolutely brilliant…..' 

The Guardian on Derry Girls 

{22}

JEz BuTTErWOrTH 

I n C O n v E r S AT I O n 

An grianán Theatre, Letterkenny 


Tickets: €10 

JEZ BUTTERWORTH HAD ALREADY established himself as one of his 

generation’s leading playwrights when his play Jerusalem, starring Mark 

Rylance, premiered in London in 2009. The play, a bold, exuberant, stateof-the-nation 

comedy about modern-day Pied Piper Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, 

won a clutch of awards and catapulted Butterworth to international fame. 

His latest play, The Ferryman, a gripping family drama set in an Armagh 

farmhouse in 1981, has been just as rapturously received. In an exclusive 

Irish appearance for Lughnasa FrielFest Jez Butterworth talks about his 

passion for Friel’s work and the challenges of writing plays, from dialogue 

to engaging with the Troubles. 

‘a playwright without equal’ 

The Guardian 


F E S T I vA L I n T r O D u C TO r y TA L k 

g u y S TAg g I n C O n v E r S AT I O n 

with Carlo Gébler 

Town Hall, Enniskillen 


Tickets: £5 

‘a sublime, intense, and intimate account’ 

Philip Hoare 

WITH AUDIENCES UNDERTAKING A WALK through Fermanagh country to 

watch Waiting for Godot at this year’s festival, the theme of walking is also 

explored in this opening talk. A few years ago Guy Stagg set out to walk from 

Canterbury to Jerusalem on a secular, 5,000km pilgrimage. Over ten months 

he passed through ten countries, climbed over the Alps in winter, survived 

a terrorist attack in Lebanon and spent Easter in Rome with the Pope. His 

account of this epic journey, The Crossway, was published earlier this summer 

to rapturous reviews. Guy Stagg talks to Carlo Gébler about his adventures, 

and explores what walking means to him. 

{24}

W I n T E r r E I S E 

by Franz Schubert 

Christianne Stotijn - Mezzo-Soprano & Julius Drake - Piano 

St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen 



We are grateful to the Arts Council of Northern 

Ireland for the loan of the Steinway Model D – 9ft 

Grand Piano for the purpose of this event 

IT MAY BE AUGUST, but a performance of Schubert’s Winterreise – Beckett’s 

favourite piece of music – has been at the heart of the Happy Days 

programme since its inception. This great song cycle was originally intended 

for a male singer but this year, for the first time at Happy Days, we’re thrilled 

to welcome internationally acclaimed mezzo soprano, Christianne Stotijn, 

accompanied by Julius Drake. Their long-standing partnership has seen them 

perform Schubert’s lieder at many of the world’s 

leading concert halls and this performance, taking 

place in the magnificent acoustic of St Macartin’s 

Cathedral, is sure to be a festival highlight. 

Preceded by Samuel Beckett's short prose Texts 

for Nothing No. 12, read by Colin Salmon. 

This is the festival’s 

fifth Winterreise and 

its first to be sung by 

a woman. Previous 

singers included Ian 

Bostridge (2012), 

Florian Boesch (2013), 

Sir John Tomlinson 

(2014) and nicky 

Spence (2017). 


T H r E E S I S T E r S 


A version of the play by Anton Chekhov 

Directed by Paula McFetridge 

Produced by Kabosh Theatre Company 

Foyle Arts Centre, Top Floor Dance Studio, Derry~Londonderry 

Saturday 18 August, 12pm & 6pm 


Cast: Michael Condron, gary Crossan, rhys Dunlop, Tony Flynn, Darren Franklin 

nicky Harley, Conor Hinds, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Terry keeley, noel Mcgee 

Dearbháile Mckinney, Carol Moore, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Lalor roddy 

Tickets: £15 ( I n C L u D E S r E F r E S H M E n T S ) 

‘IRELAND IS A LITTLE RUSSIA’, wrote George Moore in 1911, ten years after 

Three Sisters was first performed on the Russian stage. Set at the turn of the 

century in a grand provincial house, the play follows the emotional entanglements 

of three sisters and their awkward brother, dreaming of returning to 

Moscow as the old world crumbles around them. 

Brian Friel’s translation, which premiered in the Guildhall, Derry~Londonderry 

in 1981, seamlessly adapts Chekhov’s language to the rhythms of Irish 

conversation. This rehearsed reading brings together fourteen actors (including 

some of the cast of Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls) in a world of deception, disaster 

and self-sacrifice played out on the banks of the Foyle. 

{26}


L I v I n g Q uA rT E r S 

A F T E r H I P P O Ly T u S 


A Rehearsed Reading directed by Mick Gordon 

An grianán Theatre, 

Letterkenny 


Strule Arts Centre 

Dance Studio, Omagh 


Derry/Londonderry 

venue TBC 


€10 and €8 

Tickets: £8 

Tickets: £10 

Cast: Tony Flynn, Ian McElhinney, Aislin Mcguckin, 

Bronagh Waugh, Michael Condron, Eimear keating, Charlie Bonner, 

David Pearse, Charlotte McCurry 

Joint ticket: Coskun karademir Quartet 

and Living Quarters €15 /£15 

LIVING QUARTERS (1977) is Lughnasa FrielFest’s signature play for 2018 and 

leads the Chekhov & Russian theme, being Friel’s first Chekhovian play. It’s 

a family drama concerning an Irish commandant who returns home to 

Donegal a hero after a successful UN mission in the Middle East and it 

explores those quintessentially Chekhovian themes of conflict and 

resolution in an unmistakably Irish context. It’s set twenty miles outside 

Derry and the first of our rehearsed readings takes place in Letterkenny. 

Derry~Londonderry and Omagh, where the other two readings are 

happening, are referenced in the play, the characters passing through them 

on their way to Friel’s imaginary Ballybeg. 

Music has always been a powerful element in Brian Friel’s drama and the 

Middle-Eastern connection in Living Quarters is celebrated with a prereading 

performance by Sufi musicians from Turkey and Iran, Coskun 

Karademir Quartet. 

{28}

COSkun kArADEMIr 

QuArTET 

Sufi World Music Concert 

FESTIVAL 

EXCLUSIVE 

An grianán Theatre Letterkenny, 

Co.Donegal 

Living Quarters Concert 


First Presbyterian Church, Derry, 

Derry - Londonderry 

Living Quarters Concert 


Tickets: £10/€10. 

Joint ticket for Coskun karademir Quartet and Living Quarters €15/£15 

LUGHNASA FRIELFEST PRESENTS the Coskun Karademir Quartet as a musical 

prelude to Brian Friel’s Living Quarters , inspired by the play's protagonist 

(Commandant Frank Butler) returning to Ballybeg from the Middle East . 

Coskun Karademir was captivated by the music of his homeland, Anatolia 

(where Troy is reputed to be sited), and has devoted himself to its folk and 

mystical music. His group, The Secret Ensemble (of which the quartet is part) 

emerged onto the world stage with its first album, Kusların Çagrısı (The Call 

of Birds). 

Traditional Iranian and Turkish Sufi music meet in an extraordinary and 

glorious sound. The spirituality of their music is inspired by an ethos of 

unity, a coming together, a world harmony. As the poet Rumi wrote, ‘Those 

who share the same soul are preferred to those who speak the same language.’ 


T H E yA LTA g A M E 


A Rehearsed Reading 

Actors: Stanley Townsend & Orla Charlton 

St. Eugene’s Hall, Moville, Co. Donegal 


Saturday 11 August, 3pm & 8.30pm 


Tickets: €8 

THE YALTA GAME IS based on a theme in The Lady with the Little Dog by Anton 

Chekhov. Like that story, Friel’s play is set in Yalta, a Black Sea resort for 

summering Muscovites. In the festival’s rehearsed reading, Moville stands 

in for Yalta, both seaside resorts with promenades for strolling and former 

ports and fishing settlements. Where Chekhov looked out from his house, 

The White Dacha, in Yalta across the Black Sea to Turkey, Friel wrote The 

Yalta Game just a few miles from Moville, looking across the estuary to 

Magilligan in Northern Ireland. The husband and wife pairing of Stanley 

Townsend and Orla Charlton read the roles of Dmitri and Anna. 

{30}

A F T E r P L Ay 


A Rehearsed Reading 

Actors: Donna Dent & Richard Henders 

Sandwich Company, Bishop Street, Derry-Londonderry 

Friday 17 August, 9.30pm | Saturday 18 August. 9.30pm 

Warehouse Café, guildhall Street, Derry-Londonderry 


Tickets: £8 

BRIAN FRIEL’S AUDACIOUS TWO-HANDER, Afterplay (2002) takes two of 

Chekhov’s most celebrated characters - Sonya from Uncle Vanya and Andrey 

from Three Sisters - and brings them together in a Moscow cafe some 20 to 

30 years after the events in the plays. In the spirit of Friel’s theatrical conceit, 

the festival has invited two actors who have themselves played Sonya and 

Andrey previously, Donna Dent (Uncle Vanya, Gate Theatre, 1998) and 

Richard Henders (Three Sisters, Chichester, 2001) , to re-engage with those 

characters. They meet after-hours in a Derry~Londonderry café to talk of 

life, love, and its disappointments. 


u S S I A n S O n g r E C I TA L 

A Tribute to the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky 

Andrei Bondarenko: Baritone 

Gary Matthewman: Piano 

St Columba’s Church, Long Tower, Derry~Londonderry 


Tickets: £15 

© J O n A H P E r S S O n 

‘an astonishingly beautiful voice 

… on his way to greatness’ 

The Guardian on Andrei Bondarenko 

THE RUSSIAN FLAVOUR of this year’s Lughnasa FrielFest continues with this 

special concert paying tribute to the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, perhaps the 

greatest of all Russian baritones, who died late last year. Andrei Bondarenko, 

the exciting young Ukrainian baritone (and former pupil of Hvorostovsky) 

performs a recital of Russian music. Taking place in the Long Tower 

Church, with its spectacular (and Orthodox-style) interior, this promises to 

be a thrilling celebration of Russian song. 

Songs by: Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glière, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov 

{32}


{34}

F r E n C H S O n g r E C I TA L 

Julien Van Mellaerts: Baritone 

Julius Drake: Piano 

St Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen 

Saturday 4 August, 11.30am 

Tickets: £15 

‘sophisticated, precise fearlessness’ 

Scmopera on Julien Van Mellaerts 

AS PART OF THIS YEAR’S dual language focus, marking Happy Days’ 

presentation of its Paris Beckett festival in 2016 and Beckett’s own years in 

Paris, this wonderful concert of French songs is performed by the exciting 

young baritone Julien Van Mellaerts. 

Julien Van Mellaerts is one of the leading baritones of his generation. He 

only graduated from the Royal College of Music last year, but has already 

received numerous accolades, including winning the 2017 Wigmore Hall/ 

Kohn Foundation International Song Competition and most recently he 

won the Maureen Forrester Second Prize and the German Lied Award at 

the 2018 Concours musical international de Montréal. 

Programme: Poulenc, Ravel, Duparc, Debussy 


T H E P O rTO r A r E A D I n g S 

A Celebration of Samuel Beckett’s Short Prose 

Enniskillen royal grammar, Steele Hall 

See website for dates and times 

www.artsoverborders.com 

SOME OF BECKETT’S FINEST WRITING is to be found in his short prose 

works, indeed Beckett saw himself as first and foremost a prose writer, 

not a dramatist. Audiences though seldom get a chance to hear these 

wonderful short pieces being read out loud but in this year’s festival 

over the course of the weekend a number of leading actors will do 

just that - and in the evocative environs of Beckett’s old school Portora 

(now Enniskillen Royal Grammar School) and other spaces. 

This includes some sunset Fizzles in St. Michael’s Crypt with readers 

Adrian Dunbar, Anna Nygh & Ciaran McMenamin. Other short 

prose being read includes First Love, Stirrings Still, From an Abandoned 

Work, Ping and the short play A Piece of Monologue. 

{36}

C O L I n S A L M O n 

2018 Beckett Reader In Residence 

PSnI Enniskillen Police Station 


Texts For Nothing No.9 


Tickets £10 

St. Macartin’s Cathedral 


Texts For Nothing No. 12 

by Samuel Beckett opening the 

Winterreise concert 

COLIN SALMON HAS BEEN a star of film and television since his big 

break playing opposite Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect in 1992. 

Further success followed with Soldier Soldier and Colin appeared in 

three Bond movies, Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and 

Die Another Day. Colin has since mixed TV and film roles, ranging 

from Doctor Who and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency to lead 

characters in blockbuster films such as Alien Versus Predator and 

Resident Evil. Colin was one of the contestants in Strictly Come Dancing 

in 2012. He currently plays General Zod in the Syfy series Krypton. 

For details on further readings by Colin please check festival website 


Frielfest Diary of Events 

Thursday 9 August 

8.30pm The Odyssey, 

Episode 1, Maxine Peake 

Downhill Beach £ 1 5 


6pm Faith Healer 

Bus departure from Market 

Theatre, Glenties € 2 5 

The Odyssey, Episode 2, 

Maxine Peake 

Killahoey Beach, Dunfanaghy: 

see website for time € 1 5 

6.30pm The Iliad, Episode 1 

Outside Derry Walls (Walker’s 

Plinth) £ 1 0 

6.45pm The Coskun 

Karademir Quartet 

An Grianán Theatre € 1 0 

8pm Living Quarters 

An Grianan Theatre € 1 0/€ 8 

8.30pm The Yalta Game 

St Eugene’s Hall, Moville € 8 



Grand Parade Walker’s Plinth, 

Derry Walls £ 1 0 

2.30pm Living Quarters 

Strule Arts Centre, Omagh £ 8 


Episode 3, Imogen Stubbs 

Portstewart Strand £ 1 5 

3pm The Yalta Game 

St. Eugene’s Hall, Moville € 8 





Bastion near Verbal Arts 

Centre, Derry Walls £ 1 0 

6.45pm The Coskun 

Karademir Quartet 

First Derry Presbyterian 

Church £ 1 0 

8pm Living Quarters 

see website for venue details 

£ 1 0 





Episode 4, Imogen Stubbs 

Magilligan Strand £ 1 5 

11am The Iliad, Episode 4 

East Wall Artillery Bastion, 

Derry Walls £ 1 0 






5pm The Iliad, Episode 5 

Church Bastion St. Columb’s 

Cathedral, Derry Walls £ 1 0 

6pm The Iliad Closing Short 

Concert of Spirituals and 

Songs - Ruby Philogene 

St Columb’s Cathedral F r E E 

Wednesday 15 August 

7pm The Odyssey, Episode 5 

Ballycastle Beach, see 

website for full details £ 1 5 

Thursday August 16 


Narin Beach, Portnoo, see 

website for full details € 1 5 

Friday August 17 



Theatre Glenties € 2 5 


Natascha McElhone 

Carrickfinn Beach € 1 5 

7.30pm Lisa McGee 

Ulster University,Magee £ 1 0 

9.30pm Afterplay 

Sandwich Company, Bishop 

St. Derry~Londonderry £ 8 

Saturday August 18 

12pm Three Sisters 

Foyle Arts Centre £ 1 5 

2pm Jez Butterworth 

An Grianán Theatre € 1 0 







Frances Barber 

Magheroarty Beach € 1 5 

9.30pm Afterplay 

Sandwich Company, Bishop 

St., Derry~Londonderry £ 8 







4pm Afterplay 

Warehouse Café, Guildhall 

St., Derry~Londonderry £ 8 


Frances Barber, Lisfannon 

Beach € 1 5 

8pm Russian Song Recital, 

Andrei Bondarenko 

St. Columba’s Church, Long 

Tower £ 1 5 

{38}

Happy Days Diary of Events 

Wednesday 1 August 

8pm The Old Tune 

Strule Arts Centre, Omagh 

£ 1 0 

Thursday 2 August 

7pm What Where 

Secret Location, Bus 

departure: Enniskillen Castle 

£ 1 2 


5.30pm Festival Introductory 

Talk, Guy Stagg with Carlo 

Gébler The Town Hall £ 5 

6.30pm The Old Tune 

The Regal £ 1 0 

6.30pm Triptych 

Boat departure: Round ‘O’ 

Devenish Island £ 1 5 

7.30pm What Where 

Bus departure: Enniskillen 

Castle, Secret Location £ 1 2 

7.45pm A Piece of 

Monologue 

see website for details 

9pm Colin Salmon, Texts for 

Nothing No 9 reading 

PSNI Station £ 1 0 

9.27pm Fizzles 1 & 2 

The Crypt, St Michael’s 

Church £ 5 

10pm Camille O’Sullivan 

Enniskillen Royal Grammar 

School £ 1 5 


8am Morning Reading on 

Lough Erne Boat departure: 

Round ‘O’ £ 1 0 

10am Purgatorio: Walking 

for Godot Marble Arch 

Caves UNESCO Global Geopark 

(full length walk of 7km 

begins at 8am) £ 1 5 

10am The Portora Readings 


School, see website for 

details 

11.30am French Song Recital 

St Macartin’s Cathedral £ 1 5 

2pm Not I & Pas Moi 

Ardhowen Theatre £ 1 0 

3pm The Old Tune 


3pm The Portora Readings 



details 

4pm Precious Little Recital 

St. Michael’s Church F r E E 




6.30pm The Portora 

Readings Enniskillen Royal 

Grammar School, see 

website for details 


Devenish Island, Boat 

departure, Round ‘O’ £ 1 5 




7pm A Piece of Monologue 




9.25pm Fizzles 3,4,5,6 

The Crypt, St Michael's 

Church, £ 5 


9am Morning Krapp 

Reading Boat departure 

Round ‘O’ £ 1 0 

10am Purgatorio: 

Walking for Godot 

Marble Arch Caves UNESCO 

Global Geo-park (full walk of 

7km begins at 8am) £ 1 5 

11am The Portora Readings 



details 

12.30pm Not I & Pas Moi 

Ardhowen Theatre £ 1 0 




2pm The Portora Readings 



details 

3.30pm Winterreise 

St Macartin’s Cathedral £ 1 5 




Devenish Island, Boat 

departure: Round ‘O’ £ 1 5 

7pm A Piece of Monologue 


9.23pm Fizzles Reading 8 

The Crypt, St Michael’s 

Church £ 5 

Saturday 18/ 


10am Purgatorio: 

Walking for Godot 

Marble Arch Caves UNESCO 

Global Geo-park (full walk of 

7km begins at 8am) £ 1 5 


T H r E E B I L L B O A r D S ( O r M O r E ) 

O u T S I D E E n n I S k I L L E n & S L I g O 

25 July - 25 August 

Location: The Irish Border ( S E E W E B S I T E F O r D E TA I L S ) 

Design: Alan Milligan 

The Tower 

ENNISKILLEN’S Happy Days and Sligo’s Tread Softly festivals come together 

for a cross-border collaboration celebrating the work of two great Irish 

Nobel Laureates: Samuel Beckett and WB Yeats. For a whole month, 

travellers heading across the border into the Republic of Ireland will be 

treated to the last stanza of Yeats’ The Tower (a poem that inspired Beckett’s 

late film-play …but the clouds...) writ large across a series of specially 

commissioned bespoke billboards at the border, while drivers heading in 

the opposite direction will be welcomed to Northern Ireland with Beckett’s 

liminal 11 line poem neither.

northern literary lands 

Booking and further information 


Donegal Box Office 

An grianán Theatre 

Port Road 

Letterkenny 

Tel: + 353 (0) 74 9120777 

Derry~Londonderry Box Office 

nerve Centre 

5-6 Magazine Street 


BT48 6HJ 

Tel: 028 7126 0562 

Fermanagh Box Office 

Ardhowen Theatre 

97 Dublin Road 

Enniskillen 

BT74 6FZ 

Tel: 028 6632 5440 

Please note all events and artists 

are correct at time of going to 

press. Some festival events and 

artists may be subject to last 

minute change due to 

circumstances beyond our 

control. In the event of an artist 

change, a replacement will be 

engaged. Ticket buyers will be 

refunded for any event 

cancellation. 

All events have a limited 

capacity so advance booking is 

recommended. 

For further information and 

event updates visit: 


or follow us on 

Facebook: 

facebook.com/artsoverborders 

Twitter & Instagram: 

@artsoverborders 

Contact us: 

info@artsoverborders.com

‘…this most distinctive, 

original and dreamlike of 

festivals offered profound 

experiences’ 

THE InDEPEnDEnT ★★★★★ 


Principal Partners

Arts Over Borders 2018 Brochure

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