Marsh is now directing “Dance First,” an adaptation of literary icon Samuel Beckett’s life story. Gabriel Byrne portrays Beckett in the biopic that centers on his decades-spanning legacy. The film’s synopsis reads: “Literary genius Samuel Beckett lived a life of many parts: Parisian bon vivant, WWII Resistance fighter, Nobel Prize-winning playwright, philandering husband, recluse. But despite all the adulation that came his way, he was a man acutely aware of his own failings. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos ‘Dance first, think later,’ the film is a sweeping account of the life of this 20th-century icon.”
Beckett lived from 1906 to 1989, and was best known for his plays “Waiting for Godot” and “Endgame.”
“Dance First” co-stars Aidan Gillen and was written by Neil Forsyth. The film is distributed by Magnolia Pictures; it previously debuted during the Closing Gala at the 2023 San Sebastian International Film Festival.
In a note to press, Marsh described the feature as an “unusual biography,” emphasizing the unprecedented approach to capture Beckett’s life through “the lens of his mistakes.”
“When I first read the script, it starts with the Nobel prize, a great literary honor which is kind of boring, exactly what you would expect and want to avoid as a director, but then very quickly it becomes something incredibly subversive and audacious,” the “Shadow Dancer” director said. “I was delighted by the fact that it wasn’t conventional and I was surprised and provoked by the detours it took very early on.”
Marsh credited Byrne for embodying the duality of Beckett. “Gabriel felt quite a big connection to it and quite a big responsibility,” Marsh said. “It was also quite daunting as he is often playing two versions of Beckett who talk to each other and have to have two very different personalities. That’s difficult and a bit scary, acting across a green screen to yourself. But fear is a useful thing, and I had the same sort of fear as well, and if you can make that work for you, it can make you work harder.”
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