Created by Cian Binchy in collaboration with Shaun Dunne and Leah Moore, and directed by Nick Llewellyn, A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy will be touring the UK kicking off at Soho Theatre, Dean Street on 13 May, and ending at Onefest, 12 July.Â
This dark comedy is a new play that explores the complexities of masking and autistic fantasy. The play also features autistic performer, Anna Constable (read our interview with Anna from last year here).
Fot tickets visit: https://accessallareasproductions.org/theatre/
Nick lets us in behind the scenes of this production below.
Who is Alfie Murphy and what is the show about?
Alfie Murphy is a fictional character created by Access All Areas associate artist, Cian Binchy. It’s a show that explores autistic fantasy, masking and mental health.
Cian developed the character of Alfie Murphy as someone who is like him, but not him. A character (unlike Cian) who was the lyricist in a band that hit the big time but lost it all and became a self made guru in India, finding meaning through song lyrics. But then again, he loses that identity too.
Cian is an incredible poet and produced many poems that either feature in the show, are used for lyrics in the songs or have been the inspiration for the title.
Cian has a very comedic improvisational presence with an audience, and so we’re looking forward to audiences experiencing what might happen on any night! Cian is also joined by fellow associate artist Anna Constable, and the pair have a powerful energy together.Â
A Small Enclosed room with Alfie Murphy is a show unearthing the question, ‘When the person you show to the world is just a mask, what’s underneath?’
I hope that learning disabled people see their own lives represented in the show and that everyone has a bloody good night out.Â
You are doing a tour including London and Colchester. How important has it been to shed a light on autism and neurodiversity across the country?
We are excited to take the show around the UK after our Soho theatre run. It is an opportunity for Cian to reach previous and new audiences to showcase his storytelling. It is our second recent tour to Colchester’s Mercury Theatre. We were there in March with our show, Not F**king Sorry.
We will also be engaging our learning disabled audiences, offering free workshops and familiarisations to groups to explore the themes of the show. This builds on our network of learning disabled theatre across the country that promote professional theatre by artists who would not usually be given a platform.
It is important to shed light on autism as Cian says it is often misunderstood and although there has been much better representation in the media and in theatre, we are still battling stereotypes. Cian describes Alfie as an autistic coded character. We never mention that Alfie is autistic in the show but there are signs in the show that he may be.
We want to encourage inclusive audiences to come and see the show and to share and experience joy, audience participation and engage in the themes of the show together. Every show is relaxed, and there are visual guides to support neurodivergent audiences to access the show.
How easy was it to create this show and where did the idea come from?
Cian and I have been collaborating together since 2014. Cian graduated from the Performance Making diploma that Access All Areas run at the Royal Central school of Speech and Drama, for emerging learning disabled and autistic artists.
Cian is now an Associate artist of Access All Areas and through our launchpad programme, Cian has workshopped many ideas which has led to full scale productions.
In 2015, we toured The Misfit Analysis around the UK to critical acclaim. A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy also emerged from this programme and we felt it was a unique and important story to tell.Â
Cian has explored his fantasy world briefly in The Misfit Analysis but he wanted to dig a lot deeper into these themes, specifically of autistic fantasy and masking in this show. We spent a lot of time getting to know Alfie, his backstory and how he was experiencing poor mental health due to his personal circumstances and life choices.
Creating performance work in this funding landscape definitely has its challenges. But working with Cian and Anna and our co writers has been a total joy.
Access All Areas is known for ‘award-winning, disruptive performance by learning disabled and autistic artists’. What can we expect to see from you in the future?
We have been championing learning disabled artists for over 20 years. I immediately saw the untapped creativity in many of the artists that I worked with. I also saw the potential opportunities for learning disabled people to gain real careers in the arts which just needed us to push open those doors.
We never wanted to carbon copy any other practice, I wanted us to make truly co-created and authentic performance work that challenges perceptions and enables audiences to think about disability differently.
Access All Areas are driven daily by our associate artists and finding ways to showcase their stories to the public. Expect to see more of this disruptive and joyful work in the future!