His work can be bleak and very funny at the same time. It can be dense, rich and head scratching. After all, you don’t get labeled part of the Theatre of the Absurd for no reason.

He is Samuel Beckett, Nobel Prize winner and writer of plays, novels, essays and more. If he wrote on a cocktail napkin that would be enough to chew on for decades. To follow in his wake alone can be a very dark tunnel; far better to have a guide to help tackle the Irish giant.

Enter Phil Weinstein, the Vineyard’s expert on all things literary and abstract. Mr. Weinstein is a former professor of literature at Swarthmore, and in his Aquinnah retirement has brought his expertise to the good people of the Island. Each fall for the past several he has taught courses at the Vineyard Haven Library. In recent years he has maneuvered the mind through Faulkner, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Melville, exploring their works in classes that lasted several months.

For Beckett, however, it’s a one-night stand — Tuesday, June 13. The evening begins at 7 p.m. at the Katharine Cornell Theatre, 54 Spring street, Vineyard Haven. Mr. Weinstein will discuss Beckett’s work in a larger context and dig deeply into one short play: Krapps Last Tape. Don’t miss it.