In cinemas; Cert 12AWho knows what Samuel Beckett might have made of this tricky and, indeed, thrifty film about his life. I suspect he’d have enjoyed the opening segment in which the esteemed Irish dramatist (brilliantly portrayed here by Gabriel Byrne) is shown climbing the stage wall at the 1969 Nobel Prize award ceremony. A fictional twist, obviously, but it’s a good one, and Beckett winds up meeting with his own conscience in a ghostly theatre attic. Up here, the writer and himself revisit the slipperiest chapters of their life, beginning with a troubled mother (Fionn O’Shea plays a younger Samuel, Lisa Dwyer Hogg is his mum, May) and ending with an unhappy partnership (Sandrine Bonnaire appears as Beckett’s better half, Suzanne).

Source: Irish Independent November 05, 2023 11:26 UTC