Barry McGovern

Barry McGovern (born 1948) is an Irish stage, film and television actor. He was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin.

Background

McGovern is a former member of the RTÉ Players and the Abbey Theatre Company. He has worked in theatre, film, radio and television, as well as written music for many shows, and co-written two musicals and directed plays and operas. He is known internationally for his award-winning one-man Beckett shows I'll Go On and Watt which the Gate Theatre presented at the 1985 and 2010 Dublin Theatre Festival respectively.^{[citation needed]}

Selected Filmography

Film

• Waiting for Godot (2001)
• The General (1998)
• The Informant (1997)
• Driftwood (1997)
• The Disappearance of Finbar (1996)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Far and Away (1992)
• Billy Bathgate (1991)
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
• Riders to the Sea (1987)

Television

• An Crisis (2010)
• Na Cloigne (2010)
• School Run (2008)
• The Tudors (2007)
• Miracle at Midnight (1998)
• Ballykissangel (1998)
• Finbarr's Class (1996)
• The Governor (1995)
• The Treaty (1991)
• Dear Sarah (1990)
• Foreign Bodies (1987)
• Caught in a Free State (1984)
• Play for Today (1979)

Reviews

• (on his one man show "I'll Go On")
  • "McGovern illuminates the accessibility of the novels, their Irishness and their brilliant, bitter humour...brilliant" - The New York Times
  • "Barry McGovern's dazzling one-man performance…makes for wicked, compulsive fun" - The Irish Times
  • "An outright triumph…arrestingly funny" - Time Magazine
  • "90 minutes of laughter, bitterness, compassion and verbal music to leave you rapt" - New York Magazine
  • "Superb one-man show…. Without doubt one of the best interpreters of Samuel Beckett's work, McGovern's performance is masterful" - Sunday Business
  • “Barry McGovern’s astounding performance was not only the best of the festival, but also among the best I’ve ever seen… genius, no other word for it." - Sun Herald