British actor Ralph Fiennes has joined forces with Dublin's Gate Theatre to bring playwright Samuel Beckett's work to Australia.
Fiennes, who took to the stage of the city centre theatre in Brian Friel's Faith Healer last May, has once again teamed up with theatre director Michael Colgan in bringing the works to the Sydney Festival.
Marie Rooney, deputy director of the Gate Theatre, said: "This was decided in the aftermath of Faith Healer because of the association from then, he enjoyed working with us.
We brought that play to Broadway where it received four Tony nominations. It was sold out for the run and in Dublin broke all box office records.
"He is easy to work with very professional." As part of the Gate Theatre's Beckett Season at the Sydney Festival, Fiennes will perform the play, First Love, one of the playwright's earliest post-war novellas, while two other works will include Barry McGovern in his one-man show I'll Go On and Eh Joe featuring Charles Dance.
Fiennes has flown out to Australia today as the play opens on January 11th. The theatre's deputy director said McGovern has already left for Sydney where he is carrying out readings on Beckett in Delhi, India on the way to the festival. The deputy director confirmed a number of poetry and prose readings would also be held in Sydney.
"Michael Colgan has gone out already — he is directing First Love, it is the first time he has directed for The Gate since he joined," Rooney said.
Over the past year a number of celebrations have been held throughout the world marking the centenary of Beckett's birth.