{"id":39036,"date":"2023-11-03T14:10:43","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T13:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1917954"},"modified":"2023-11-04T03:47:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-04T02:47:49","slug":"gabriel-byrne-on-dance-first-i-thought-beckett-was-pretentious","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/gabriel-byrne-on-dance-first-i-thought-beckett-was-pretentious\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabriel Byrne on Dance First: \u2018I thought Beckett was pretentious\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The veteran actor talks to RadioTimes.com about playing Samuel Beckett and how his view on the literary icon changed over time. <\/p>

By Patrick Cremona\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 03 November 2023 at 13:10 PM<\/p>

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In Dance First \u2013 which is released in UK cinemas today, veteran Irish actor Gabriel Byrne takes on the role of one of his most esteemed countrymen: Samuel Beckett.<\/p>\n

Directed by James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) and written by Neil Forsyth (The Gold), the film explores the playwright and novelist\u2019s life through the prism of several of his relationships \u2013 including those with his mother May (Lisa Dwyer Hogg), fellow Irish literary great James Joyce (Aidan Gillen) and his wife Suzanne (Sandrine Bonnaire) \u2013 to paint a picture of a complex, fascinating man.<\/p>\n

Byrne grew up in Dublin and remembers hearing stories \u2013 sometimes apocryphal \u2013 about Beckett as an unapproachable, nihilistic character.<\/p>\n

He recalls one tale in particular about a man who had seen the writer strolling in Dublin and had stopped him to comment on what a beautiful day it was, only for Beckett to reply: \u201cWell, I wouldn\u2019t go that far.\u201d It was this reputation of him as a dour, dark-minded character that contributed to Byrne\u2019s own initial idea about the man and his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t like his plays,\u201d he tells RadioTimes.com<\/a> during an exclusive interview. \u201cI thought that people who liked Beckett were pretentious \u2013 that they saw something that was unique to them. And I identified much more with emotionally accessible plays where I could say, \u2018Oh, yeah, Chekhov I get, I totally understand. I get what that\u2019s about.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Beckett was like, there\u2019s no emotion and there\u2019s very little drama.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the years, though, Byrne\u2019s impression of the work gradually began to change, such that he could recognise that Beckett was writing in a way that nobody had ever written before, and dealing with subjects that nobody had ever dealt with before. In other words, he had revolutionised theatre.<\/p>

\u201cAnd then I began to see the humour and then I began to see what he was actually saying,\u201d he adds. \u201cAnd he began to talk to me, and, in fact \u2013 if it\u2019s not too pretentious \u2013 he started to talk for<\/em> me. I\u2019ve never actually said this, but if somebody asked me the question, what do you think of life? I\u2019d say: \u2018Well, I agree with Beckett.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Dance First is not necessarily a traditional, cradle-to-grave biopic. Instead, it begins with Beckett finding out he has won the Nobel Prize, after which we see him having a reflective conversation with himself as we visit several different chapters from his life. It was this concept that instantly appealed to Byrne about Forsyth\u2019s script \u2013 the chance to do something a little more \u201coblique\u201d with Beckett\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] allowed a freedom in terms of the narrative that a conventional biography wouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd so it was an extremely clever script by Neil Forsyth because, in the second scene, he\u2019s saying to you: this isn\u2019t going to be what you expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be an interpretation, a surreal interpretation, that has something to do with the spirit of Beckett. That second scene, which takes place in this other world, mimics perhaps Waiting for Godot. But essentially there\u2019s no set, there\u2019s nothing to focus your eye on, except one person talking to himself and making him confront the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dance First : A Life of Samuel Beckett.<\/span><\/figcaption> SEAC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

In the same way that the film was not traditional in its approach to Beckett\u2019s life, Byrne and director James Marsh were keen to ensure that his performance wasn\u2019t simply an \u201cimpersonation\u201d of Beckett.<\/p>\n

He praises Steve Coogan\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d turn as Jimmy Savile in the recent BBC One drama The Reckoning<\/a>, but says that for this particular film, he was determined to go after a rather different kind of performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want people to be on the alert for something that didn\u2019t quite work in that scene,\u201d he says. \u201cYou know, [like] the glasses were different, or the hair was different, or the look. You had to free yourself from all of that. And the biggest thing that I felt that I could contribute to it was to make him feel, to have an emotional life.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the final scenes \u2013 when Beckett is a much older man \u2013 that Byrne found most difficult to perform. This was partly because it made him think about his own father, but also because it forced him to ponder what it means to be frail and vulnerable \u2013 something that he says \u201cif we\u2019re lucky, in a weird way, awaits us all\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cBeckett accepted that. And when he came to his last days, he moved into a nursing home. And he had a room with nothing in it, except a table and a chair and I think a picture of Dante or something like that. That was it. Which was in keeping with the rest of his life \u2013 utter simplicity, no ceremony. A simple, almost monastic life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dance\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Dance First : A Life of Sameul Beckett<\/span><\/figcaption> SEAC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

He adds that delving further into Beckett\u2019s life, marriage, and \u201cdifficult relationship with Ireland\u201d during the research process made him realise that he might have been quite a lonely man. He was also struck by the contradictions: although he was kind, gentle and witty, he could also be very cruel and was unfaithful to his wife over many years.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a mixture of humanity, which I think we all can identify with,\u201d Byrne explains. \u201cYou know, we\u2019re not just one thing. We\u2019re a mixture of so many things. And I came to admire \u2013 hugely admire \u2013 his integrity, and his ability to see through the superficiality of fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why, at the beginning of the film, when he wins the Nobel Prize, he says, \u2018What a disaster,\u2019 which he actually said in real life. And his influence on writers across the world has been huge.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see it sometimes even in Bob Dylan, [who] looked at that and said part of his brand is mystery. You haven\u2019t seen an interview with Bob Dylan for a long time. Plus, he didn\u2019t show up for his Nobel Prize, which Beckett didn\u2019t either.\u201d<\/p>\n