Samuel Beckett has been part of Adrian Dunbar’s creative life for more than four decades. His first encounter came in 1981, when, as a student at the Guildhall School, he saw Waiting for Godot and became fascinated by a writer who was already something of a legend: an Enniskillen schoolboy who had gone on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and create work that seemed to resist easy understanding. That fascination has endured, and Dunbar now brings his longstanding engagement with Beckett to Beckett: Lieben, where he is directing and performing as part of Liverpool’s third Beckett festival, exploring the writer’s relationship with Germany and German Expressionism.
In this exclusive conversation with Liverpool Noise, he talks about the emotional rather than intellectual power of Beckett’s work, the creative possibilities it offers across different art forms, and why its themes of loneliness, isolation and endurance may find a particularly powerful resonance in Liverpool.
You have become one of the leading champions of Samuel Beckett’s work in recent years. Can you remember the moment when Beckett stopped being simply a playwright you admired and became someone whose work you felt compelled to return to?
The first time I saw Godot at the Guildhall School in 1981, I was fascinated by Beckett. At that point, all I knew was that he went to school in my home town of Enniskillen, had won the Nobel Prize and had written a play that people were trying to understand.
Beckett: Lieben is the third edition of Liverpool’s Beckett festival, following Confined and Unbound. What excites you most about this year’s theme, and what do you hope audiences discover through exploring Beckett’s relationship with Germany?
My excitement stems from the fact that we are opening up a whole world of understanding by focusing on his relationship with Germany and German Expressionism.
One of the festival’s strengths is that it doesn’t simply stage Beckett’s plays — it brings together theatre, music, visual art, literature and discussion. Why do you think Beckett’s work lends itself so naturally to collaboration across different art forms?
I think because the expressionistic, abstract and absurd elements in the work allow a creative response for all disciplines and a door to explore.
You’ll be directing and performing works that have an unusually direct connection to Beckett through your collaboration with Walter Asmus, who worked closely with him. Has that relationship changed the way you approach Beckett’s writing and performance?
Yes! Walter has been a great connection to Beckett and a help to both myself and Nick in understanding the work.
Beckett’s reputation can sometimes make newcomers feel that his work is difficult or intimidating. What would you say to someone who’s never experienced Beckett before but is considering coming to the festival?
I would say to anyone that Beckett’s work is not an intellectual exercise, it is written to make you feel. It’s more akin to music. See how it makes you feel!
Liverpool has developed a remarkable reputation for Beckett scholarship and performance. What is it about this city that makes it such a fitting home for an international festival celebrating his work?
Well, of course it’s beautiful, it’s accessible and commands a large hinterland, but really it’s the hard times that it’s been through that allow these deep-feeling plays to resonate particularly with a Liverpool audience.
As someone who has spent much of your career telling stories on stage and screen, what do you think Beckett understood about the human condition that still feels startlingly relevant today?
Simply his understanding of the causes of loneliness and isolation…
Much of this year’s festival explores Beckett’s creative dialogue with Germany. Do you think artists need to step outside their own culture to discover something new about themselves?
Well, they say that travel does broaden the mind, so yes!
Looking beyond the performances themselves, what conversations do you hope audiences are still having as they leave the theatre and reflect on what they’ve seen over the festival weekend?
I hope the work stimulates many conversations that are both deep and filled with the laughter of recognition.
Finally, if Samuel Beckett could spend a day wandering around Liverpool during Beckett: Lieben, where would you take him — and what do you think he would make of the city in 2026?
I would meet him at Lime Street, take him to the Hope Street Hotel to book in. Go to The Walker Art Gallery and then have some lunch. Then it’s off to the Cavern and The Tate. Then dinner and a concert at The Philharmonic. After, we would go to The Philharmonic Pub and, well, who knows after that!
That reminds me…One night in the mid-1980s, when the city of Liverpool was on its uppers, with some Irish actors, we drank till dawn in the Adelphi. The staff brought us a huge bowl of cocktail sausages about 6am… I was in great form and went down to the ferry and the pilot let me go to and fro all morning. A Hard Day’s Night was the first film I ever saw in the cinema and Ferry Cross the Mersey the second, so you see Liverpool to me was a magical place when I was six… still is. Actually, now I think of it… “Life goes on day after day”… is very Beckett!
Perhaps the most fitting thing about Adrian Dunbar’s reflections on Beckett is that they ultimately lead us back to Liverpool — a city of hard times, humour, music, movement and memory. Beckett’s world may appear distant, but its emotional truths remain remarkably close. And perhaps that is why Dunbar’s final thought feels so appropriate: life goes on, day after day. In Beckett, as in Liverpool, there can be both sadness and laughter in that simple fact.
Beckett Lieben 2026
17-20 September
Info and Tickets
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