Uaigneas

Abstract

This essay is a reflection on the Irish word uaigneas, often translated into ‘loneliness’ or ‘solitude’, but closer in meaning to ‘away-from-ness’ or ‘without-ness’ (my own translation). Considering the impact of Beckett’s settings and subjects on my performance practice as an artist and musician working within the Irish landscape and with the Irish language, and thinking about rurality as a possible site for performance, I reflect on the possibility that within the Irish language and Beckett’s writing there are similarly embodied and spectral experiences of place.