Dame tells how Express exposed Beckett wedding
THE remarkable story of how an Express journalist got caught up in a cat-and-mouse game with legendary writer Samuel Beckett in a bid to reveal his secret wedding is being told in a new production starring actors Dame Harriet Walter and Russell Tovey.
Sixty years ago Beckett, one of the world’s greatest playwrights, spent a fortnight hiding out in the seaside town of Folkestone, Kent, to secretly marry his French partner Suzanne Dechevauxdumesnil so she could inherit his publishing rights.
He travelled from their home in Paris to Folkestone in 1961 hoping to go undetected, but the journalist already had the scoop.
Thrown off the scent by Beckett’s publisher, the reporter – who is not named in the production – was told thewaiting For Godot writer was not in the UK, despite seeing him in the town and watching him leave the registry office with his new bride on March 25, 1961.
The immersive multi-media theatrical event is part of the Creative Folkestone Book Festival.
Tovey plays the reporter and Dame Harriet plays a witness to the wedding.the actors recorded monologues, which are screened
on 1960s television sets at various locations in Folkestone as audiences follow in the journalist’s footsteps.
The Crown and Killing Eve star Dame Harriet says of the story: “The journalist calls and the agent says, ‘Oh you are joking, he is in Africa’. It was a very well-kept secret.”
Speaking of the challenges faced by the reporter, she says: “Sixty years ago you couldn’t just click on a website or look at theirtwitter record or any of that, you just had to chase
people. He asked at all the grand hotels if they had a Mr Beckett staying there, but the playwright wasn’t staying under his own name. A few days later the reporter saw Beckett stepping out of the registry office with a woman, the reporter was on the bus and shouted for the driver to stop.”
Dame Harriet recorded her monologues in her home studio built during lockdown.
The Shape Ofthingsto Come runs until next Sunday. For details, visit creativefolkestone.org.uk