This October, RTÉ Drama On One will present a season of author Samuel Beckett's writings.
In his acceptance speech at the Prix Italia in 1959 (for his play, Embers) Beckett commented 'that radio is a medium which has not been fully exploited and that there are great possibilities for writers in this form of expression.’
The season includes Watt, adapted from Beckett's novel of 1953, and a radio version of his 1979 stage play, A Piece of Monologue, together with re-broadcasts of Beckett’s radio plays; including All That Fall, directed by Barry McGovern and The Old Tune, directed by Conall Morrison.
(Image by kind permission of Enniskillen Royal Grammar School)
The season celebrates not only Beckett's mastery of the written word, but his unique understanding of the possibilities of sound.
Presented by the permission of the Estate of Samuel Beckett, the season showcases performances by one the world's greatest Beckett interpreters, Barry McGovern, acclaimed for his award-winning performances in Beckett works including I'll Go On, Watt and Waiting for Godot.
Each work is introduced by biographer Gerry Dukes, whose stage adaptation, with Barry McGovern, of Beckett’s post-war trilogy of novels as I’ll Go On has played around the world.
director Conall Morrison, Drama On One's Kevin Reynolds and Kevin Brew
Drama On One's Beckett Season - the schedule
Watt, Sunday, 1st October
Drama On One begins its Beckett Season with Watt, adapted and performed by Barry McGovern. Published as a novel in 1953, Watt tells the story of a nomadic manservant who works for a Mr Knott. His comically repetitious duties are related in sublime, self-revising prose that rejects the conventions of the plot-centered novel. Barry McGovern’s acclaimed stage version of Watt premiered at the Gate Theatre in 2010. Both the stage and radio versions are directed by Tom Creed.
All That Fall, Sunday, 8th October
Drama On One continues its Beckett Season with All That Fall directed and produced by Barry McGovern, starring Pegg Monahan and Aidan Grennell. All That Fall was premiered on the BBC Third Programme in 1957. The play reveals - in matchless, often hilarious dialogue - the tortuous journeys of Maddy Rooney to Boghill train station and back, when she decides to surprise her husband Dan on his return train journey from work. The train is delayed for reasons Dan is reluctant to share, in a text that reveals Beckett’s unique understanding of the radio medium and its ability to portray our inner experience. This RTÉ version was recorded in 1990; the cast includes Pegg Monahan, Aidan Grennell, David Kelly, Pat Laffan, Kevin Reynolds, Kevin Flood, Kate Minogue, Barbara McCaughey, Cliona O’Brien and Barry Glennon.
The Old Tune, Sunday, 22nd October
The Old Tune is Samuel Beckett's free adaptation of La Manivelle/The Crank, a radio play by French writer, Robert Pinget. Two old acquaintances - Gorman and Cream - meet at a roadside bench, where one of them is a street hawker with a barrel organ. As they trade memories, it becomes clear that they can't agree on any of the facts of what happened in the past. It is a piece - as funny as it sad - about how time corrodes memory, how the old tune we have our in heads becomes fainter and fainter. Directed by Conall Morrison and starring Barry McGovern as Cream and Eamon Morrissey as Gorman, this radio version is based on the stage production of the play, which premiered at the Enniskillen Happy Days Beckett Festival in 2018.
A Piece of Monologue, Sunday 29th October
Drama On One concludes its Beckett Season with A Piece of Monologue, performed by Barry McGovern, and directed by Daniel Reardon. A Piece of Monologue was originally written for the actor David Warrilow and first performed in 1979. A man, Speaker, opens with the arresting line, ’Birth was the death of him’, before describing fleeting aspects of a life, most likely his own: from successive lightings of a lamp; to the ripping of photos of loved ones, from a wall, like memories from the passage of time; to the images of an open grave and a coffin ‘on its way’. As Gerry Dukes explains, the piece becomes ‘a kind of threnody, a lament in prose, for all of those deplorable developments in our endings.’
RTÉ Drama On One, Sundays, 8pm RTÉ Radio 1 - listen to more from Drama On One here.
