A young man, expelled from the family home, takes refuge on a bench by a canal. There he meets a woman who takes him home. She is his first—perhaps only—love and a major hindrance to his desire to rid himself of contact with others. Conor Lovett's solo performance of Samuel Beckett’s First Love is a masterpiece of tragicomedy, featuring the bone-dry humor of a character besieged with a clutter of emotions. He is a man who says terrible things in a beautiful way and beautiful things in a terrible way. He tells you things best left unsaid.

First Love contains much of Beckett's distinctive dark humor and a plot that is the epitome of Beckettian perversity. Written as a novella, this performance transforms the work onto the stage, creating an intensely personal dynamic between the storyteller and the audience. The storyteller may not be someone who you’d invite over for tea—he might not accept anyway—yet you are riveted to the words which flow from his mouth, and the story he has to tell.

"Conor Lovett’s supremely funny performance in First Love, a solo stage adaptation of an early postwar Beckett novella, is such a pleasing triumph because its gallows humor emerges so organically, the result of a prepared actor with a deep understanding of the text."
Jason Zinoman, The New York Times

"Beckett's pain is Lovett's audience's gain." – The Philadelphia Inquirer

In short: Beckett tragicomedy, storytelling, gallows humor, solo act, bitter love, real Irish accent.

Judy Hegarty Lovett and Conor Lovett's Beckett work with Gare St Lazare Players Ireland has gained them a reputation as two of the world’s foremost Beckett interpreters, as well as innovators in staging texts from novels, including Moby Dick. In all, Conor has performed 19 Beckett roles in 24 Beckett productions internationally.

Direction Judy Lovett Text Samuel Beckett Performed by Conor Lovett

Post-show discussion moderated by Deborah Sherman, acting director of college writing and assistant professor of English, Haverford College, following the performance on September 4.

Conor Lovett is recognized as one of the world's foremost Beckett interpreters. He has performed 17 roles in 23 different Beckett productions internationally. Trained at L'École Jacques Lecoq in Paris, Conor has worked in devised theater with The Clod Ensemble and Lee Andrea in London; improvised comedy with Dave Murray; and performance art collaborations with Paul Craig in Dublin. He has also taught master classes in solo performance in France, Germany, and Ireland. Theater credits include The Duchess of Malfi, The Homecoming, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Bouncers, The Possibilities, The Dumb Waiter, and Orpheus. He co-produced and starred in the short film Shut Eye. Other screen appearances include Father Ted(TV), Moll Flanders, L'Entente Cordiale, The Kings of Cork City (Short), In Like Flynn, and Fallout.

Judy Hegarty Lovett is joint artistic director of Gare St Lazare Players Ireland (with Conor Lovett). She has a degree in performance art and mixed media from Crawford College of Art & Design in Cork (Ireland) and a post graduate diploma in dramatherapy from the University of Hertfordshire (UK). In Cork she worked as a photographer and set designer before she moved to Paris in 1991 where she worked as an assistant to artistic director Bob Meyer. For Gare St Lazare Players Ireland Judy’s Beckett directing credits include Waiting for Godot, Rockaby and Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable, Lessness, Enough, Texts For Nothing, and Worstward Ho. Other directing credits include works by Harold Pinter, Michael Harding, Judy and Raymond Keane, and Conor McPherson, and a stage adaptation of Moby Dick.

Over the last 14 years Gare St Lazare Players Ireland have built a repertory of work that includes over 18 Beckett titles as well as work by Michael Harding and Conor McPherson. Though they premiere much of their work in Ireland, the company has also toured to 21 different countries. They have developed ongoing relationships with theaters and festivals from Kilkenny to Shanghai.