A trailer has been released for Dance First, based on the life of renowned Irish author, playwright, theatre director, poet, literary translator, and Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, IndieWire reported. Directed by James Marsh (The Theory of Everything), the film stars Gabriel Byrne (as Beckett) and Aidan Gillen. Written by Neil Forsyth, Dance First premieres in theaters August 9 and will be available digitally August 16.
The film's logline: "Literary genius Samuel Beckett lived a life of many parts: Parisian bon vivant, World War II 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."
Marsh described the film 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. 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."
He also praised Byrne's performance: "Gabriel felt quite a big connection to it and quite a big responsibility. 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."