presents Samuel Beckett Season
rte.ie/dramaonone
This October, RTÉ Drama On One (Sundays, 8pm RTÉ Radio 1) will present a season of 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 celebrates not only his mastery of the written word, but his unique understanding of the possibilities of sound.
Beckett presents us with our own humanity;
the hopelessness and the solitude, the bizarre tragicomedy of life itself.*
The season includes Watt, adapted from Beckett’s novel of 1953, and a radio version 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.
He believes in the cadence, the comma, the bite of word on reality**
The season was is presented by kind permission of the Estate of Samuel Beckett, and 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 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. Gerry is also editor of Samuel Beckett: First Love and Other Novellas and the author of the biography Samuel Beckett from Penguin’s Illustrated Lives Series.
Watt by Samuel Beckett: 8pm Sunday, 1st October, RTÉ Radio 1
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. Watt’s comically repetitious duties are related in sublime, self-revising prose that rejects the conventions of the plot-centred 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.
Sound: Mark Dwyer, Tommy O’Sullivan
Series Producer, Drama On One, Kevin Reynolds
