From 7 to 21 June 2026, Berggruen Arts & Culture and Gare St Lazare Ireland bring to Venice the world premiere of the live performance of How It Is, one of Samuel Beckett’s most enigmatic and radical texts. Directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett and performed by Conor Lovett and Stephen Dillane, the project transforms the Nobel Prize winner’s final full-length novel into a total stage experience, where voice, sound, light, and space translate the vertigo of a language pushed beyond its own limits. Mel Mercier’s composition and sound design and Simon Bennison’s lighting are joined by a site-specific intervention by Michael Craig-Martin, conceived for Palazzo Diedo. Amid mud, darkness, and memory, Beckett resonates once again as living matter, harsh and hypnotic.
The performance can be experienced in two formats. On Sundays 7, 14, and 21 June, How It Is is performed in its entirety, without intervals, from 5 pm to 11 pm, with last admission at 6 pm. On 10, 11, 13, 17, 18, and 20 June, the work is presented in its three parts, with intervals: Part I at 1 pm, Part II at 4 pm, and Part III at 8 pm. Admission requires the purchase of the STRANGE RULES + HOW IT IS ticket, available online or at the ticket office. The full experience is recommended, but visitors may leave and return on a later date, after registering their exit at the ticket office, until 21 June and subject to capacity. The ticket also includes access to the exhibition STRANGE RULES, open on the same dates from 10 am to 7 pm.
Featured image: Actor Stephen Dillane in rehearsal for How It Is by Samuel Beckett at Palazzo Diedo. Ph. Ewa Figaszewska
