By Meaghan Menzel
Literary House Beat Reporter
It’s not every day you get a chance to meet an actor who’s worked for the theatre, radio, and television. Washington College had this opportunity Wednesday, Sept. 19. Professional Irish actor Barry McGovern visited the Rose O’Neil Literary House to read works by William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Samuel Beckett.
McGovern never knew he wanted to act as a career. He didn’t know what he wanted to do after graduation so he auditioned for a school of acting. He was accepted and got involved in the Abbey Theatre Company in Dublin. He was accepted at a radio station called RTE in his early 20s, but he continued with theatre and acting all throughout his life.
His first performed in college in “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett. He’s well known for his role as Vladimir in “Waiting for Godot,” his one-man-performance of “I’ll Go On” in 1985, which took him around the world to Dublin, Chicago, New York, and across Europe, and “Watt” in 2010, which he and a few partners wrote.
McGovern was asked to read at Washington College directly by English Professor Thomas Cousineau to mark his retirement. Cousineau has been working at WC since 1978. According to Director of the Lit House Dr. Jehanne Dubrow, every year someone, generally from the English department, selects who will read for the Sophie Kerr Lecture Series.
Professor Cousineau chose McGovern because he loves his work with Beckett’s writings. He met McGovern in Monaco for a reading at Prince Grace’s Irish Library. McGovern made a visit to WC in 2006 at the Norman James Theatre for the Centenary of Beckett.
The indoor porch of the Rose O’Neil Lit House was nearly full, as a generous mix of students and staff attended the event. Some students actually sat in the living room in order to listen to the reading.
To start the event, Professor Cousineau explained why he selected McGovern to read and how this occasion would mark his last semester here. He was thrilled by McGovern’s first “extraordinary” performance at WC and wanted to see him perform again.
McGovern stepped up next and started off reading poetry written by Yeats. Such pieces included “The Stolen Child,” “The Psalm of Wandering Aengus,” “The Last Confession,” “No Second Troy,” and the third part of “The Tower.”
McGovern moved on to reading sections of four stories written by Joyce. He read the final section of “The Dead,” the last section of Chapter four in “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” “The Cyclops Episode” of “Ulysses,” and the last two pages of “Finnegans Wake.”
“And now onto something completely different,” McGovern said, moving on to works by Beckett. Beckett is known for his “absurdist” or “dark humored” writings.
McGovern read a poem from “Watt” and continued with poetry and passages from short stories, acting out the dark humor and causing much laughter. He read another piece from “Watt” and poems of various emotions, love, death, and relationships. The last piece he read was the last piece Beckett wrote, “What is the Word,.”
Sophomore Jordan Cannon said, “I liked how it concentrated on three poets. It wasn’t so scattered. …His voice is perfect for a storyteller’s.”
McGovern answered a few audience questions after the reading. He said that he had no idea why he was so drawn to Beckett’s works.
“It just appeals to me,” he said, adding that he loves how Beckett’s works are “funny” and “deadpan” and the “dark humor” they contained. It emits a new, “realistic” view on existence.
McGovern similarly said that he could not pick a favorite piece that he has been in; rather, he said that he loves to do just about anything.