Couple bring Enda Walsh’s Misterman back to Cork

Oysterhaven-based husband and wife team, Al Dalton and Sadhbh Barrett Coakley of ALSA Productions are staging Enda Walsh’s acclaimed play, Misterman, who is a devout moralist obsessed with sin and purity. This character, in the one-man show, is played by James De Burca. As the play progresses, it becomes clear why Misterman is so preoccupied with sin. He has done something heinous.

The production at the Cork Arts Theatre marks the first time in 25 years that Misterman will be performed in Cork since its original outing by Corcadorca in 1999. Al says it was last performed by Cork native and Oscar winner, Cillian Murphy in 2011 in a revised version of the play. That version of the play enthralled audiences in Galway, New York and London. Now, Cork audiences can decide whether or not Misterman has redeemed himself.

Director, Al, says: “As a company, we’re always looking to create work that connects with our audiences. There is so much in this play that holds a mirror to issues we are facing today – faith, morality, community and the fragility of the human mind.”

Set in the fictional Irish town of Inishfree, Misterman follows pious Thomas Magill whose fixation with good and evil spirals into isolation and madness. This is a demanding performance for James, who embodies both Thomas and the chorus of the townsfolk. It features voiceovers from seven well-known actors, including Ciaran Bermingham, Fionula Linehan and John McCarthy. For all its darkness, the production is described by Al as “dangerous and blisteringly funny.” It is produced by Sadhbh.

Al has always been attracted to Enda’s writing. “I love the language, the darkness, the depth, and the familiarity of the Irishness in it. In my formative years in theatre, I stepped into a world where Enda Walsh was very present, be it through Corcadorca or doing my speech and drama classes. You’d be thrown a monologue from Disco Pigs (Enda’s hit play.) We’re doing the revised version of Misterman. I remember seeing it in Galway, and it has lived in the back of my mind since.”

The character of Thomas is lost and isolated. “We meet him at a certain time in his life, living in what could be a dilapidated factory space in Inishfree. He is at a remove from the town. We kind of meet a monster from the get go. That facade burns away and we realise he is someone living with a large sense of guilt. We very much meet Thomas in a kind of purgatory. I haven’t fully decided whether the option of heaven or hell is available to him. He is really locked in. The guilt is kind of corrosive. It’s amazing how it begins to rust away as the piece goes on and how the truth really begins to emerge.”

While Al and Sadhbh have placed the play in a version of today, Thomas is stuck in his own world. “He has two reel-to-reel players providing the various voices. There are cassette players from the 80s and 90s.

“It really reminds me of walking into my granddad’s house on the South Douglas Road and all the stuff he had hoarded from the 60s.”

The recorded voices are snapshots from the town. “It’s hard to know when Thomas plays them whether you’re actually hearing his inner monologue.”

Audiences will wonder why no-one stepped in, why there wasn’t an element of care shown towards Thomas. If there had been an intervention, perhaps the actions might not have been carried out.

“We see a lot of it today, especially in young males who end up in their own echo chambers on social media. That provided a way in for me, the investigation into the piece that asks ‘where was the nurture and the care? Thomas seems to have missed out on empathy.”

Al and Sadhbh have a nine-month-old baby boy called Lugh. “It’s fascinating to look at the character of Thomas from the point of view of being a parent and the damage you can do.”

Working together as a couple, both professionally and in their personal lives, is not a problem for Al and Sadhbh. “It has always been like that. We set up the company in 2016 after the MTU drama and theatre studies degree. We met on the course and have been together since. Professionally, it is amazing because we have a shorthand, a really quick language between us. That could also be our downfall. You can get the other person almost too quickly. But it has been great. 

"We made an early decision that the company would not be our only thing. We really wanted to have prominent freelance careers as well. And we have worked abroad. This is our first time producing a published play. Our work to date has been material we have written ourselves or devised with another writer.”

The production has no funding. “We really need to sell the tickets. We feel we can do it because we have nearly ten years behind us, working professionally. Sadhbh has gone on to do a Masters in producing and has worked as a producer with Once Off Productions. During that time, I was flexing my muscles as a director, and I was assistant director with Corcadorca a few times.”

Al admits that running a theatre company in Cork is difficult. “The funding landscape is constantly shifting....It’s hard to retain funding for a company. We have only ever been successful with project funding.”

But the show must go on for this determined couple.

• Misterman is at the Cork Arts Theatre from November 13-22. See corkartstheatre.com.