MOLLOY

Tempted to put down Beckett's novel as unreadable? Just two separate monologues, with little or no apparent connection today? Don't be too hasty. In print the two monologues are hard to connect, it's true. Molloy, a homeless derelict in search of his mother, narrates Part I, while Moran, a pretentious, outwardly devout prig, seeks Molloy himself in Part II. Sean Barrett and Dermot Crowley each read separate parts, and, oddly, these two skilled actors hold the book together remarkably well. Though the connection between the two monologues is thin, each is richly nuanced with Beckett's sometimes dark, sometimes ribald humor. The distinct readings lend the book a dramatic presence, playfully yet skillfully rendering all the characters to illuminate Beckett's irony. So while in print it seems dark, even absurd, in audio this work takes on the full richness of comedy, probably as Beckett, preeminently a dramatist, intended. P.E.F.
(c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 04]