"When the person you show to the world is just a mask, what’s underneath?" Artistic Director and co-CEO of Access All Areas, Nick Llewellyn, has just been asked to sum up his latest collaboration with award-winning actor and writer, Cian Binchy.
The production in question is A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy, in which a rockstar turned guru and a blue shark are just two of the surreal characters awaiting audiences. This darkly comic play by the renowned autistic artist who best known as Tate Le Saux in the ITV crime drama, The Level, explores masking autism, mental health and fantasy, as it leads audiences through the many worlds of Binchy’s imagination.
Having received its world premiere earlier this year at The Lowry, Salford, the piece, which is the culmination of Binchy and Llewellyn’s 11 year working relationship and made in collaboration with Shaun Dunne and Leah Moore, is now embarking on its first tour.
“We have been collaborating since 2014 when Cian graduated from the Performance Making diploma Access All Area runs at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, for emerging learning disabled and autistic artists. In 2015 we toured a show called The Misfit Analysis around the UK to critical acclaim and we felt that A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy was unique and another important story to tell.”
So who is Alfie Murphy?
Binchy explains, “Alfie is a musician, not the lead singer, but the main songwriter in a band, who feels like the lead singer gets all the glory and is trying to steal his limelight. He is a man looking for something missing in his life, he just can’t work out what it is.”
“I’ve been working on Alfie since 2018, it started off about a yoga teacher who had a hot temper, but in the process of writing, the character evolved into somebody who has anger issues but pretends to be all, ‘calm, peace and love’, which kind of coincides with the theme of fantasy".
“Society is full of contradictions about what is real and what is not. We say, ‘That’s life…’ and ‘That’s the reality…’ but how real is the real world? How can we tell what’s real and what’s not? I wanted to make this show because over the years I have learned so many things I want to share, mainly that no matter where you go, you’ll always be you. You can never escape yourself.”
Llewellyn is pleased to be taking it out on tour “Audiences found the original run of A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy very funny and many neurodivergent people were happy to experience the joy of a show that didn't give simplified answers to their lived experiences. They genuinely enjoyed the playful way Cian riffs with them.”
“He has a very comedic improvisational presence and we're looking forward to audiences experiencing what might happen on any night. He is also joined on stage by Anna Constable - the pair have a powerful energy together”.
“I hope that people are excited by this show, and that they bring their friends along because it is a fun night out”.
And as for that incongruous blue shark?
Well, Binchy reveals, “Sharks play a very, very important part in the show. Sharks symbolise the people who are out to trap you in life and stop your game, stopping your fantasy and leaving you trapped in the corner, told not to move… It’s like if you’ve ever been naughty in school and the teacher has said: ‘Go stand in the corner.’ That’s when they stop your game, and leave you feeling like you are stuck in the middle of the ocean surrounded by sharks - well, that’s how I feel, personally and A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy is a story very personal to myself.”
A small enclosed room with a shark. What could go wrong? Find out when A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy comes to our Cellar Theatre on Sat 31 May.