US writer pens first ‘Irish’ play

Pulitzer Prize nominee Will Eno suggested collaboration with Cork actor and Beckett interpreter Conor Lovett, says Richard Fitzpatrick

Highly-regarded American playwright Will Eno has written a play for the Gare St Lazare Players Ireland. The American has been described by the theatre critic for the New York Times as “a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation.” Eno won a Fringe First award at the Edinburgh Fringe and has been short-listed for a Pulitzer Prize.

Last January, after watching Conor Lovett perform Beckett’s The End in New York, Eno approached the actor and his wife and director, Judy Hegarty Lovett, to tell them he wanted to write a play for their theatre company. It was a big commendation.