This talk by Dr. Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin) was about the boundary-crossing nature of Samuel Beckett's oeuvre. Looking at histories of performance practices across different cultures, Dr. Johnson examined the resulting tensions in the work of Samuel Beckett, especially his work for the theatre, existing between strict or mathematically precise delineations — strips, striations, boxes, and containers — and the rhizomatic profusion of possible meanings or methodologies as actors, directors, designers, and dramaturgs read "between the lines".

Nicholas Johnson is Assistant Professor of Drama and convenor of Creative Arts Practice at Trinity College Dublin. He is also co-founder of Samuel Beckett Laboratory. A scholar-artist, director and literary translator, he uses techniques of performance in his interdisciplinary research projects.

Invited by the Embassy of Ireland and the University of Gdańsk, Nicholas Johnson will also taught a workshop exploring Beckett's work in and through performance, which was part of the Between.Pomiędzy Festival of Literature and Theatre held in Gdańsk 14-20 May 2018.

Image credit: Waiting for Godot, text by Samuel Beckett, staging by Otomar Krejca. Avignon Festival, 1978. Rufus (Estragon) and Georges Wilson (Vladimir) / photographs by Fernand Michaud. Wikimedia/Gallica.bnf.fr (item link).