Sean Barrett

Sean Barrett started acting as a boy on BBC children’s television in the days before colour, when it went out live. He grew up through Z Cars, Armchair Theatre, Minder and Father Ted. His theatre credits include Peter Pan at the old Scala Theatre and Noel Coward’s Suite in 3 Keys in the West End. Films include War & Peace, Dunkirk and A Cry from the Streets. He was a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company. He also features in Molloy, Malone Dies, The Voice of the Buddha and Canterbury Tales III for Naxos AudioBooks.

Nicolas Soames interviews Sean Barrett

Sean Barrett is fast becoming the contemporary voice of Samuel Beckett on audiobook. After decades of proving himself one of the most versatile of London-based readers – despite a natural Irish accent – with a range of books from Jack Higgins and William Trevor to Robert Graves and Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Barrett has turned to Beckett.

First came the Trilogy – Molloy (with Dermot Crowley), Malone Dies and The Unnamable. Then, this year, marking the centenary of Beckett’s birth (13 April 2006), Barrett plays Vladimir in the Naxos AudioBooks recording of Waiting for Godot. And, he says unequivocally, he has rarely enjoyed a series of recordings more.

For a start, he sweeps away the notion that Beckett is bleak and despairing. ‘The novels and the plays are actually very, very funny,’ he says, though he acknowledges it is a certain kind of humour. Only some people will laugh at typical Beckett bon mot such as the opening of A Piece of Monologue: ‘Birth was the death of him.’ Barrett laughs uproariously at just the thought of it. Perhaps it is Irish humour.

Certainly, when he came to do Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, it was the comedy he started with. ‘Of course, I have seen it many times. Actually, I was down in Bath reading a thriller about a Turkish detective and I went to see the latest Peter Hall production of Godot. The theatre was full. And everyone was falling about laughing. They were having a ball.’

Only a few days later, Naxos AudioBooks asked Sean to perform Vladimir for the centenary Naxos AudioBooks recording, directed by John Tydeman. And his starting point for the characterisation were the bowler hats. ‘I immediately began to think of Laurel and Hardy, because I had read that Beckett had once been asked if they had anything to do with it, and he replied guardely,’ There might be something in it.’ I visualised the rhythm of those two, their relationship and that kind of works, one slightly bossy and one slightly helpless. It was a way in.

Sean had a perfect partner in David Burke as Estragon, and was joined by Nigel Anthony as Lucky and Terence Rigby as Pozzo. Rigby has done Pozzo for Peter Hall (who directed the first UK production in 1955) so had a vast experience of the play. ‘Terry says that the stage version is knackering because there are so many props,’ says Sean. In an audiobook recording, the actors can concentrate on the words because they have a stage manager doing most of the sound effects (for Naxos, the hugely experienced Peter Novis). But the actors do have to work very closely with the SM, so that the lines and the effects come naturally together. It is about rhythm – but according to Sean, rhythm is the key of audiobook reading.

‘When you read a book, especially unabridged, you have to find the rhythm. Of course, you have to tell the story – book reading is all about telling stories – and find the characters. But the rhythm is the key.

‘That was what really surprised me about reading the Beckett novels. Beckett is simply wonderful to read. I expected I would have to work hard at them, but they are so well written I found it was like surfing. I just had to catch the wave and I was away.

‘But I didn’t know that when I began. At the start, you are faced by that iconic image of Beckett’s face, with those eagle eyes looking out at you.’ Even a reader with the experience of Barrett gulped at the thought of the Trilogy unabridged.

He was delighted to find that once in the studio, the words came almost effortlessly. It may have been because, as a master dramatist, even Beckett’s prose demands to be read aloud. However – Barrett found himself smoothly producing line after line, even in The Unnamable, one of the most demanding books in twentieth century literature. ‘And I never found him grim or pretentious.’

Barrett reckons to do about a dozen books a year. But he is also very active on radio and in the film dubbing studio. For eight years he was the voice of Father Gillespie on the BBC World Service soap Westway, (which has recently closed) and is also heard reading books on Radio 4 and appearing in radio drama. (He was an Irish priest in the popular TV comedy Father Ted also!)

His remarkably wide range of voices means he is in constant demand in dubbing films, whether animation, TV or full feature film. He has been doing it for years – including the cult Japanese martial arts series Monkey, on which he played any number of monsters; and a similar Chinese series, The Water Margin.

This went some way to help him with one of his most recent recordings for Naxos AudioBooks – Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. A multi-voice production, he was the narrator with half of the book, telling the story of the cat finder Nakata. ‘It was very strange – the kind of book you read with your eyebrows! The characters are marvellous – even the small people.’

One reason for his success is his versatility; another is his preparation. He reads his work carefully, looking for the tone of the book, and making clear decisions on the characters. ‘I was told early on in BBC Radio that there was no time in the studio – you had to prepare, and that is what I have always done,’ he says.