Daniel Reardon

A Piece of Monologue by Samuel Beckett was written in English for actor David Warrillow in 1979 and performed by him in New York in 1980.

First published by Kenyon Review in 1979.

The original title for the piece was Gone.

My name is Daniel Weirden.

I'm the director of A Piece of Monologue by Samuel Beckett with Barry McGovern.

I first heard of a piece of monologue through Barry McGovern, who just happened to mention.

I said, oh, I must read that.

That sounds very interesting.

I knew it had been written for the famous Piketty and actor in New York, David Warlow.

But here in Ireland and in the world, really, Barry McGovern has become the interpreter, the definitive giver of Samuel Beckett's texts.

Not just the prose, but the wonderful, the incandescent performances that he gives, as Vladimir Estragon, the whole lot that he's done over the years.

It's always a privilege to watch him on stage.

It's always wonderful to listen to him.

on the radio.

And it's been great to work with him.

Now this piece just came across as one astonishingly poetic and evocative.

line after line, and Barry gives it this rhythm in such a way that it makes them mesmeric.

And what he does in the performance, this particular kind of rhythm, there's no variation really, it seems to me, to my ears.

There's no variation in the pacing or no undue colouring or any... He inhabits it, he inhabits the text.

And for that reason, the listener goes right inside, right inside Barry McGovern's head.