Not Beckett, The Plays : Female and Non-binary Irish Playwrights Respond

Five new short plays, including author commentaries, from female and non-binary writers of Irish heritage in response to Samuel Beckett.

What does Irish heritage mean to members of the modern-day diaspora? Global playwrights Olwen Fouéré, Jennifer Barclay, FELISPEAKS, Nicola McCartney and Hannah Khalil make their mark with five unique pieces loosely inspired by seeds from the Beckett canon.

Originally staged for the international Not Beckett festival 2024-25, a festival created by writers Hannah Khalil and Jennifer Barclay to expand on the idea of what Irishness looks and sounds like. Premiering in October 2024 at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre, the plays were then staged internationally with partners on the project: The Samuel Beckett Research Centre in Reading, the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York, Fishamble in Dublin in collaboration with the Lir Academy, and Villanova University in Philadelphia, PA, amongst others.

Each short play provides an ideal vehicle for students and readers to further explore the artistic influence of Samuel Beckett’s work through a modern-day, multicultural lens. The collection is introduced by Dr Matthew McFrederick, Co-Director of the Beckett International Foundation at the University of Reading, who considers the plays in the anthology and their impact.

duet by Olwen Fouéré
Never Apologize by Jennifer Barclay
WAIT; by FELISPEAKS
I CAN'T REMEMBER THE by Nicola McCartney
The Lighthouse Keeper's Son by Hannah Khalil

Olwen Fouéré is an actor and creative artist who works internationally in English and in French. In 2024 Olwen performed opposite Hugo Weaving in The President (Dir. Tom Creed), a co-production between Sydney Theatre Company and The Gate Theatre, Dublin. Her most recent stage work includes her solo performances of iGirl by Marina Carr at the Abbey Theatre in October 2021; the role of Winter in The Last Season by Force Majeure (Sydney Arts Festival 2021); the role of Mother in Marina Carr’s adaptation of Blood Wedding by Lorca (Young Vic Theatre,London, 2019); “Nous l’Europe, Banquet des Peuples” written by Prix Goncourt winner Laurent Gaudé and directed by Roland Auzet for the Avignon Festival 2019; the role of 3 in Ballyturk written and directed by Enda Walsh (Abbey Theatre, Dublin and St Ann’s Warehouse, New York 2018) and Unwoman III by Melbourne based company The Rabble (Dublin 2018).

Jennifer Barclay is a Chicago-bred and DC-based actor-turned-playwright who holds dual citizenship with the United States and Ireland. Her play Ripe Frenzy won the National New Play Network (NNPN) Smith Prize for Political Theatre and the Dramatists Guild Fund Writers Alliance Grant. Jennifer’s plays have been produced and developed by Steppenwolf, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, RedCat, The Kennedy Center, Center Stage, Roundhouse Theatre, Signature Theatre, Mosaic Theatre, Solas Nua, Boulder Ensemble Theatre Co, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, American Blues Theatre, Fishamble (Dublin), The International Theatre of Vienna and The Edinburgh Fringe, among others. Other awards include: Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award, Kennedy Center National Science Playwriting Award, Pinter Review Gold Medal, BETC New Generations Award. Jennifer has had fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the New Harmony Project, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Hawthornden International Writers Retreat in Scotland. She has been a playwright in residence at South Coast Rep (Shank Playwright in Residence), Center Stage (Playwrights Collective) and Arena Stage (Playwrights Arena).

FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from Co. Longford currently based in Dublin City. FELISPEAKS has been nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival September 2018 and went on to win ‘Best Performer’ in 2022. As well as being a Member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors appointed June 2020, Felicia is a member of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS is an Artist-in-Residence with Axis Ballymun and Visual Carlow, in addition to being an Associate Artist with THISISPOPBABY. FELISPEAKS’ poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the English Ordinary Level Leaving Cert Curriculum for examination year 2023 and 2025, as is their poem “Rainbow Blood” for 2025. In 2020, FELISPEAKS was commissioned a new piece for RTÉ’s The Big Picture on the theme of ‘the New Normal’ - this poem, entitled Still captured the minds of the nation and has been performed to audiences all over the country. Of late, FELISPEAKS has been commissioned by the Irish Repertory Theatre and Fishamble: The New Play Company for the Transatlantic Commission for Black Irish Artists. FELISPEAKS ended 2021 as an Irish Tatler Woman of the Year with a win in the Catalyst Category - which recognises a woman who has affected change in Irish society in a pivotal way. FELISPEAKS became an ambassador for Laya Health Care’s Beats TV and Media Campaign.

Nicola McCartney is a playwright, director and dramaturg. She trained as a director with Citizen Theatre/ G&J Productions and Charabanc Theatre Company Belfast. Nicola was Artistic Director of lookout Theatre Company, Glasgow from 1992-2002, and has twice been an Associate Playwright of Playwrights Studio Scotland. She has worked for a host of organisations as a dramaturg including Vanishing Point and Stellar Quines/ Edinburgh International Festival. Her plays include: EASY, HERITAGE, HOME, STANDING WAVE: DELIA DERBYSHIRE IN THE 60S, RACHEL’S HOUSE, CAVE DWELLERS and LIFEBOAT. She co-authored HOW NOT TO DROWN with Dritan Kastrati (Thick Skin/ Tron/ Traverse) which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2019. She is also a social theatre practitioner and has worked with all sorts of groups including people within the criminal justice system in UK and USA, asylum seekers and refugees, drug users, survivors of domestic violence and childhood abuse.

Hannah Khalil is currently Resident Writer at Shakespeare’s Globe. Henry VIII is part of their 2022 summer season and her critically acclaimed re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Fir Tree which premiered in 2021, will return for their 2022 winter season. Hannah’s other theatre commissions include new work for the RSC, Soho Theatre, The Kiln and Mosaic/Fishamble. Previous work for stage includes A Museum in Baghdad, which opened at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre in 2019 directed by Erica Whyman, Interference for The National Theatre of Scotland, The Scar Test for Soho Theatre and Scenes from 68* Years for the Arcola. Her work is published by Methuen Drama. Hannah has also written numerous radio plays, including The Unwelcome, Last of the Pearl Fishers and The Deportation Room all for BBC Radio 4. Television work includes multiple episodes of the Channel 4 drama Hollyoaks. Her short film, The Record, won the Tommy Vine screenplay award at the Underwire film festival, and went on to be made. It was also selected at London Palestine Film Festival. Hannah was named Heimbold Chair of Irish Studies at Villanova University in 2021 and is a Creative Fellow of the Samuel Beckett Archive for 2021/2022.