Barry McGovern

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Barry McGovern is an Irish stage, film and television actor, born in 1948. He was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin.

Contents

[edit] Background

McGovern is a former member of the RTÉ Players and the Abbey Theatre Company. A prolific actor, he has worked in theatre, film, radio and television, as well as written music for many shows, and co-written two musicals and directed plays and operas. Films include Riders to The Sea, Joe Versus the Volcano, Billy Bathgate, Far and Away, Braveheart, The Disappearance of Finbar, The Informant, Miracle at Midnight and Sparrow's Trap; he most recently worked with director Atom Egoyan on Felicia's Journey.

He is known internationally for his award-winning one-man Beckett show I'll Go On, which the Gate Theatre presented at the 1985 Dublin Theatre Festival.

Most recently, he gave a lecture on James Joyce on the 18th February, 2008 in Dublin.[1]

[edit] Selected Theatreography

[edit] Complete Filmography

[edit] Film

[edit] Television

[edit] Quotes

  • Waiting for Godot is probably the most accessible of Beckett's plays,' says Barry. 'It's like Mozart – too easy for children, too difficult for adults. I remember my stepson saying: "I know what Godot is about. It's about these two men waiting for somebody who never arrives." That's it! There are ramifications in all sorts of directions, overtones and undertones, but that is basically what it's about.[2]
  • Some people think of Beckett as a very negative writer. I think he's a positive writer. The last three words of [his novel] The Unnameable are: "I'll go on" – "You must go on; I can't go on; I'll go on."[3]


[edit] Barry McGovern Reviews

  • (on his one man show "I'll Go On")[4]
    • "McGovern illuminates the accessibility of the novels, their Irishness and their brilliant, bitter humour...brilliant" - The New York Times
    • "Barry McGovern's dazzling one-man performance…makes for wicked, compulsive fun" - The Irish Times
    • "An outright triumph…arrestingly funny" - Time Magazine
    • "90 minutes of laughter, bitterness, compassion and verbal music to leave you rapt" - New York Magazine
    • "Superb one-man show…. Without doubt one of the best interpreters of Samuel Beckett’s work, McGovern’s performance is masterful" - Sunday Business

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dublin Tourism - Readings & Lectures - Talk by Barry McGovern - An Approach to Reading 'Sirens'
  2. ^ Beckett on Film | Waiting for Godot
  3. ^ Beckett on Film | Waiting for Godot
  4. ^ Gate Theatre Dublin : The Gate

[edit] Further reading

  • Young, Jordan R. (1989). Acting Solo: The Art of One-Person Shows. Beverly Hills: Past Times Publishing Co.