Beginning To End - Samuel Beckett

Beginning To End - Samuel Beckett
Performed by Jack Macgowran

[@billymusicwb]

What a gem! Beckett performed by Jack MacGowran is a perfect match. This is a gift. Thank you for posting this.

[@bensisko16]

So glad you like it

[@bensisko16]

@bbxx44 This is the only copy available as far as I know. It was broadcast years ago on RTE (Irish television) and I just happened to have a video recorder ready. I converted the video file to an flv file for upload to KZbin. It's a wonderful video and as far as I know quite rare. If I hear of a DVD version I'll be sure to pass on any info; so glad to see so many admirers of Beckett and of course Jack MacGowran.

[@jimstormcrow]

Wonderful

[@itgetseasierlessitry]

Macgowans face was a landscape in itself, his diction the clear river that ran through its nooks and crannies.

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

I fully agree with every word that you have said because it is completely true

[@mrpicky1868]

if that was my profession i would be shy to call myself an actor, just bcs titans like Jack Macgowran existed. now that's acting!

[@thomassimmons1950]

Brilliant. What a performance by JM, with the genius and challenging material of Beckett into the bargain!

[@bensisko16]

@mickcleere His name is Jack Macgowran, and he is a famous character actor with a string of film titles roles to his credit. He appeared in the Quiet Man, Doctor Zhivago and Shakespear's King Lear, to name but a few.He is most prominent with Beckett's work and known world wide for this. He performed this whole piece without breaks or editing. Check him out on Wiki or Google.

[@fmdolan]

Thanks so much for posting this. I saw it when it was broadcast in 1971, I think, and it made a huge impression!

[@ForeverBanned1]

This my great Uncle Jack who starred next to one of my idols John Wayne so proud of him

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

You luck person to have Jack as your uncle, Your uncle Jack I could listen to this man all day and all night for 7 days none stop and I would come back for another 7 days and nights

[@bensisko16]

@iankelland so glad I found this rare archive in my collection. I am also so glad to know that there are so many fans of Jack MacGowran and of Beckett. I'm so jealous of your autograph of Jack's but I'm also so glad that his memory will live on so fondly. Thank you for such nice comments.

[@Fleurantique]

Thank you so much for uploading this wonderful and rare piece!!! Enjoy it over and over and over again and again.

[@MartinAnthonyEgan]

I love this. I have the Claddagh Records Album which is getting very worn now and also have it on C.D. I never had the T.V. Version before though. Thank you for posting it.

[@videocurios]

Superb, Definitive, words fail me this is pure beauty Thankyou

[@Johnnyredtail]

Much of Molloy and Watt here.

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

As a young boy with very little knowledge of the great big world yet my mind would wander and skip across the 7 seas and across foreign lands like the wind. I accidentally came across some of Samuel Beckett players on an old black and white TV, I immediately knew that I have found gold, a very rare world treasure, I fully understood every word that Samuel Beckett wrote and uttered, the choice of the actors male and female were the perfect match for his world and they helped to get the message across to those that say that they understood.

[@bbxx44]

I saw this when it was first broadcast and have been looking for it for years. Thank you so much for posting it. Is it available on DVD?

[@iankelland]

Thank you so much for posting this! I have never before seen the complete performance. Many actors swoon teary-eyed at the mention of the dear late Jackie MacGowran. I've adored him for many years, I've his autograph in my collection - the biography of his life - and I continue to watch and revel at his wonderful performances on film. Thank you!

[@ibid54]

Jack Macgowran: a pure genius!

[@jamesbradshaw3389]

I refuse to disagree with you

[@irramama]

I too own a copy of that later color version filmed in the Mojave and it's a superb production and performance. Excellent video quality too. But, like you, I won't be putting a copy on KZbin for fear of copyright violations. Plus, it was a gift and understoood that it was not to be copied.

[@irishfergal]

Thank Speedy Gawd for this post. Thank you. Beckett in his grave rotates like a rotisserie chicken. He's grateful that JM for placing this work in digital perpetuity. At least I think he's grateful. How would I know?

[@iankelland]

A friend of mine once saw a later version of his Beckett show in Ireland and remembered it to me as one of her most amazing nights in the theatre. To see this frail little man with his big sad eyes & this enormous voice filled with energy and poetry! Bless him!

[@MartinAnthonyEgan]

Your right Ben, He played Burke Denning the Film Director

[@johnking7685]

Wow what a find.Many thanks. I'm pretty sure Macgowan played the fool to Paul Schofield's Lear in the Peter Brook film. What an actor!

[@charlesgoldstein4200]

I've been advised by an intellectual property attorney not to make any copies at this time, though it is my goal to eventually do so, in order to distribute it to every English department in the world that might want it. Posting it is also currently inadvisable. It is a remarkable literary document.

[@rd264]

ignore the stupid lawyers [no one is going to bother you about a copyright] and just make alot of copies

[@SurrenderPink]

Genius indeed. Is it just me or in this does Beckett regurgitate Godot “Astride the grave” and Endgame “Bowed legs / little trail of black soot?” Timeless performance!

[@MrGilberto4444]

This part. the rotation of stones, is in Molloy.

[@nickboretz1774]

nothing like a good dose of meaninglessness and existential dread to brighten a day, eh?

[@Dharmon1]

Too bad Jack died back in 1973 of influenza.

[@Dharmon1]

Stefano Pavone 54, actually.

[@davehshs651]

Beckett truly captured and recaptured a dark view of human nature and existence. I'm grateful that it's just his view.

[@biharandorissa]

A work of genius,Jack MacGowran was made for Beckett's narrative,has anyone out there got the 1961 Waiting for Godot with the great man?

[@AgnieszkaGarofeanu]

Very good memory indeed. :) Amazing balanced performance. Any record of Beckett referring to it?

[@johngleeson5805]

To Christian Ludvigsen, 27 September 1973: "Beginning to End is composed of extracts from my work (prose, verse, theatre) connected to form a dramatic monologue. It was devised and performed over the years (Dublin, London, Paris, Berlin, U.S.A.) by my friend Jack MacGowran, who died recently in New York. With its conception and realization I had little to do, though I worked briefly on the Paris and Berlin productions and was consulted at verious times regarding additions and changes. It was originally performed on Irish T.V. and a film of this should be available. I had nothing to do with this production. It's [sic] validity depended entirely on the personality of MacGowran, his Irishness and extraordinary feeling for and affinity with my work. It was uniquely his property and objectively is quite untransmissible. With the death of MacGowran it comes to an end. I am sorry to disappoint your friend." -The Letters of Samuel Beckett: 1966-1989, pp. 34-35 omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/items/show/14914

[@MartinAnthonyEgan]

Your right. He played the Film Director.

[@bbxx44]

Charles, Is there any way to get a copy or for you to post it here. I remember it being amazing.

[@giniwelle]

This is incredible....pure genius...

[@rd264]

set upon by stoats

[@tsubarashiii6251]

1:03 2:17 5:44 17:29 20:26 20:45 24:08 24:24 27:46 31:32 41:04

[@swalshs2]

Was just mentioned by John Banville on the last word with Matt Cooper. Only finding it now but thanks - hugely enjoyable!

[@patrickreardon870]

@CharlesGoldstein THEN POST IT!!!!!!!! Holding ransom over our heads.

[@bensisko16]

Not sure about the priest in the Exorcist. I'm sure that was played by other actors.

[@bbxx44]

There was another Beckett performance by Jackie MacGowran t hat was filmed outdoors. I believe it was shot in the desert in Arizona. That was broadcast on American public television in the 70s.

[@rrte2]

From which work is the first scene, of the legs walking by the beach? I'd great appreciate an answer.

[@peterbeavis-go9wr]

The voice of beckett.

[@123must]

Beautiful upload ! Thanks a lot

[@benvarney4583]

Beautiful; ta.

[@lconn39]

Thanks so much!

[@charlesgoldstein4200]

I own that outdoor version--filmed in the Mojave Desert, CA. Perhaps the world's only playable copy. Far superior, if such can be imagined, to this earlier version.

[@mccartichoke]

I worked for Jack MacGowran and his wife, Gloria, and was with them in Ridgecrest, Cal. for the filming of this show by Lewis Friedman at KCET in LA, in May/June of 1971 I was with Jack until his death, and had the great good fortune to spend a week in Berlin - Sept., '71 - with Samuel Beckett. I was 21 at the time and I completely idolized Beckett; that week was Heaven for me, I especially remember Sam talking about Finnegan's Wake and James Joyce over a few glasses of Beaujolais one evening in a hotel bar. I have wanted a copy of this show since then, having seen the live version well over 100 times; it means a lot to me.