HOW IT IS by Samuel Beckett to Make World Premiere at Palazzo Diedo in Venice

Running until June 21, 2026, Samuel Beckett's innovative novel inspires a fusion of art forms, creating a groundbreaking live art event for Venice. Gare St Lazare Ireland – considered by The New York Times as “the unparalleled Beckett champions” and recognised worldwide as the leading Beckett interpreters - supported by Culture Ireland, present the world premiere live performance of How It Is, one of the most enigmatic and linguistically striking novels by the Nobel Laureate in Literature.

The event has reimagined the 2nd floor at Palazzo Diedo, currently one of Venice's leading contemporary art centres, transforming them into an interdisciplinary laboratory where literature, theatre, visual arts, and music converge into a single, synesthetic experience.

Mario Codognato, Director of Berggruen Arts & Culture, commented: “Presenting the complete version of How It Is for the first time at Palazzo Diedo reflects our commitment to fostering a dialogue between great literature and contemporary visual research. Together with Gare St Lazare and Michael Craig-Martin, we have transformed this historic 18th-century building into a unique performance apparatus.”

In keeping with the fluid nature of the live art event, public admission is designed to be open-ended: spectators can enter and leave the Palazzo freely, with the option to return until June 21 using the same pass. The ticket also includes an integrated exhibition itinerary, offering access to the ongoing exhibitions Strange Rules and Ceal Floyer at Palazzo Diedo, as well as Joseph Kosuth's exhibition The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero at Casa dei Tre Oci.

Irish artist Michael Craig-Martin, who conceived the scenic project for How It Is, will be the protagonists of a conversation with Joseph Kosuth on Friday, June 12, at 18:00 at Casa dei Tre Oci. The talk will mark the launch of the exhibition catalogue for The-exchange-value-of-language-has-fallen-to-zero, published by Marsilio Arte. The event will offer an opportunity to discuss the linguistic cross-pollination among philosophy, writing, art, and theatre, exploring the deep connection linking Kosuth's conceptual art to the literary universe of Samuel Beckett.

Under the direction of the award-winning Judy Hegarty Lovett, acclaimed director of thirty productions for Gare St Lazare Ireland, including numerous Beckett titles, and winner of Best Director at the 2022 Irish Times Theatre Awards, the work is brought to the stage at Palazzo Diedo in its entirety for the very first time. The company draws on a 11 year relationship with the same creative team to realise project. The project marks a decisive stylistic turning point for Gare St Lazare, as they engage with a novel of non-linear syntax that blends sound and scenography with the dislocation of the narrative voice, reaching meaning through fragmentation.

The journey of this monumental project began with the debut of the first part of the novel in 2018 and the second part in 2019 at The Everyman Theatre in Cork, Ireland, subsequently presented at The Coronet Theatre in London. The production is led by two exceptionally prestigious performers: Conor Lovett, an internationally acclaimed actor recognised as one of the foremost interpreters of Samuel Beckett's repertoire and co-artistic director of the company alongside Judy Hegarty Lovett; and Stephen Dillane, the celebrated British actor (and Tony Award winner) who became a global pop culture icon for his role as Stannis Baratheon in the cult series Game of Thrones. Dillane brings his extraordinary calibre to the service of Beckettian prose.

They are joined by the company's core creative team: composer and sound designer Mel Mercier and lighting designer Simon Bennison, who translate the novel's radical absence of punctuation into a sensory score of rhythm, sound, and light with an array of musical instruments and several lighting installations designed for the Venetian venue. The production is further enriched by special appearances from Irish musician Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and internationally renowned artist Michael Craig-Martin, who joins the team as a design collaborator.

What truly makes this an exceptional interdisciplinary event is the collaboration of Michael Craig-Martin. Invited by Hegarty Lovett to complete the visual dimension of the project, the internationally renowned artist and influential educator attended the company's rehearsals at Palazzo Diedo, crafting a site-specific installation with mastery and sensitivity.

Operating on the premise that listening to How It Is is a radically different experience from reading it, where the spoken word acquires a genuine physical dimension, Craig-Martin's intention was to visually amplify this physicality, aligning perfectly with Beckett's innovative novel.

His intervention focuses on the floor and the seating, unified by a single, vivid colour: magenta. This shade, suspended between red and purple, reveals an ambivalent presence that is exceptionally sensitive to the slightest changes in light and atmosphere. The layout aims to reflect the text's complex shifts in register, defining and emphasising the physical and emotional unity of the shared space between performers and audience in this extraordinary production.

How It Is, Samuel Beckett's (1906–1989) final long novel, was published in French in 1961 and in English in 1964, marking a radical shift in the author's style. Characterised by a crisis in the subject-object relationship, the work eschews traditional grammar through a shattered syntax of scattered words and numerical calculations, with the deliberate goal of disconnection. The plot is divided into three parts (the journey, the couple, the abandonment), set in an essential landscape of primordial mud and darkness. Here, a solitary figure drags a sack of tins and a can opener, listening to the story of his life from a voice he believed to be external, but discovers to be his own—an epic allegory of human existence where the body prevails over soul and mind.

As director Judy Hegarty Lovett explains: “We questioned what it means to relinquish character to reach a more stripped back, less recognisable sense of place, time and persona. The challenges of the novel are an invitation to invention. Invention is central to our process. To enter this uncharted territory encourages an experiential access to Beckett's universe and another way of understanding the performance medium. We find ourselves searching for another way to represent space and form opening a live, stimulating dialogue with you the audience.”

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