Irish Writers' Weekend: Lisa Dwan – A Body of Beckett

A unique lecture-performance by the great interpreter of Samuel Beckett.

Actor, producer and director Lisa Dwan has been called the nonpareil interpreter of Beckett for her acclaimed one-woman performances of his plays and late monologues. In this she draws on her deep experience, as well as the training as a ballet dancer that first brought her to the conversations he was having with the human body. A Body of Beckett explores these relationships and the expansive metaphysical world where our identities exist.

Part of the British Library Irish Writers' Weekend 2026.

She originally trained as a ballet dancer before an extensive career in theatre, film, and television all over the world. Hailed by Ben Brantley in the New York Times as 'the nonpareil interpreter of Samuel Beckett', Dwan is best known for her critically acclaimed one-woman performances of Beckett’s plays, including Not I, The Beckett Trilogy, No’s Knife, and Happy Days. She is currently shooting Down Cemetery Road for Apple, she also stars as O'Hara in Mobland for Paramount, the lead role of ‘Fia Lucy’ in the BBC/ RTE drama Blackshore and as Lizzie in Top Boy for Netflix. Dwan has been a long term Visiting Professor at Princeton University, Columbia University and MIT and has lectured at NYU, Oxford, Cambridge universities and École normale supérieure in Paris. Lisa has also written and presented documentaries for both TV and radio for both BBC and Sky Arts on Samuel Beckett, Dante and Ovid.