Interview with Misterman team reveals student collaboration and innovation

The latest student production to be performed at the Goose Nest – Misterman by Enda Walsh – promises to be unlike anything Warwick has seen before.

Co-director Matt Owen explains that Enda Walsh’s plays are “beautiful but really tough to put on.” So, a “big collaboration was necessary”. Oscar Sadler, the other co-director, elaborates: “Our vision is diverse, with so many forms, mediums, techniques – it is so multi-disciplinary – that it wouldn’t be possible with a regular structure.” This is a production that favours the whole over a “showcase of anyone’s individual skills”.

This is a production that favours the whole over a “showcase of anyone’s individual skills”

What does that mean in practice? WUDS is presenting the play in collaboration with Tech Crew, the (often under-appreciated) society which oversees all lighting, sound and set for Warwick’s student shows. Owen and Sadler knew that the scope for sound design in Misterman was both exciting and challenging, and that they needed Tech Crew’s talents. They have had “sound designers in from the first rehearsal”.

The collaborative spirit manifests itself within the cast as well. The play is written as a one man show, but Owen and Sadler had different ideas. They cast two people as the central character, Thomas Magill, who will each perform one night of the run; they also cast a five-strong ensemble which, through sound and movement, creates Thomas’s world around him.

The collaborative spirit manifests itself within the cast as well

Isi Tucker, a member of the ensemble, notes that “sometimes in theatre there is a negative connotation with ‘ensemble’. There’s an idea that you’re not going to be doing much, you’ll just be supporting.” But the ensemble has been able to “experiment and bring ideas into the space”. Out of that freedom and close work with the directors has sprung a “unison ensemble piece which has been lovely to see evolve”.

Daniel Denton-Harris, playing Thomas on opening night, agrees. “It doesn’t feel like a one man show performing it. You feel you have so much support.” Owen explains that “knowing that [each actor playing Thomas] only has one performance, we knew we had to give them maximum support. We’ve supported them in every line of the play.”

Thomas observes his little village of Inishfree in southern Ireland, believing he has been sent there by God to document everyone’s sins

Why did they decide to cast two Thomases? Owen and Sadler argue that “many opinions can be formed of Thomas – hero or villain, saint or sinner.” Thomas observes his little village of Inishfree in southern Ireland, believing he has been sent there by God to document everyone’s sins. “Is he to blame for what does or is he a victim of circumstance? Casting two actors and two identifying genders emphasises the two very different versions of Thomas.”

But the production will not drill home one reading over another. “Thomas is trying to justify himself to the audience and it’s up to the audience whether they believe him or not,” explains Owen. Denton-Harris agrees that the play “works in a way that the audience can take away from it what they want to take away.” That is partly because, Sadler observes, the play is “narrative driven as opposed to belonging to an epoch or a generation.” Instead, it’s a “look inside one man’s psyche. It’s intimate.”

“It feels like this is an event, this is a moment, and you have to be there to witness it”

The team are offering a bumper ticket that allows you to see both nights, proof of their confidence that each show offers something unique. Sadler explains that they have “effectively rehearsed two shows, and you’ll come away from them with two different opinions.” Denton-Harris muses that watching Molly Parker play the other Thomas is “really uncanny but also very thought-provoking. They are still both fundamentally the same character, but the two interpretations branch off into so many different veins that you wouldn’t necessarily see with other character.”

This is, says Sadler, what student theatre should be about: “Instead of just taking a play and putting it on, we have taken a play and reinvented it, done something different with it.” If you’re still unsure whether you should come down to the Goose Nest next week, let Denton-Harris convince you: “It feels like this is an event, this is a moment, and you have to be there to witness it.”

Misterman is at the Goose Nest, Friday 4 and Saturday 5 May. 

https://www.warwickartscentre.co.uk/whats-on/2018/misterman-by-enda-walsh/.