2008–11 / 2014 / 2016

Directed & designed by Judy Hegarty Lovett

CAST

Conor Lovett

Lighting by Judy Hegarty Lovett (2008/2010)
Lighting by Sarah Jane Shiels (2011)
Lighting by Simon Bennison (2014/2016)

First Love is a short story by Samuel Beckett. In it a man recounts an episode early in his adult life where, having been expelled from the family home, he meets a young woman on a bench. His attempts to rid himself of his infatuation with her lead him to move in with her. A perfect blend of tragedy and comedy, First Love is almost the perfect short story.

First Love premiered at Siamsa Tire, Tralee on March 8th 2008 and has toured all over Ireland, Dublin Theatre Festival & Under The Radar New York, 2009, Melbourne Festival 2010, Edinburgh Fringe 2010, Arcola Theatre, London 2014 and Beckett In London Festival (Gare St Lazare/Coronet Theatre) 2016.

Nominated jointly with Gare St Lazare’s production of The End for The Judges Special Award at Dublin Theatre Festival 2008.
Nominated for Best Director (Judy Hegarty Lovett) and Best Actor at Off West End Awards, London 2014.
"Such a pleasing triumph."
—The New York Times
"Conor Lovett deserves his reputation as one of the greatest Beckett actors of our time. His timing and manner is perfect as he switches between humour, confusion, genuine joy, apathy and shocking moments of anger or despair. He creates a character who is the finest balance between hateful and abhorrent and charming and sympathetic. His lilting Irish accent is the ideal vehicle to deliver Beckett’s words, lending both humour and pathos to the narrative. He and director Judy Hegarty Lovett have staged a play that is so simple that it’s almost overwhelming."
— The Australian Stage.
"The piece is pebble-dashed with erudition, vulgarity and frequently hilarious self-deprecation which seems very familiar. At least half of that pleasurable sense of familiarity, of course, comes from the work of Lovett. He has become so much the Beckett performer of choice that his voice, his humour, his ways of controlling attention, more and more, form our idea of Beckett."
— Dublin Evening Herald