Enda Walsh's- Mister Man(One Man Show)

[wikkleshamrocks]

Awww Razz *hugs* I wish you could get to London! That timing of work sux and I would have give you my spare ticket in Galway!

Well I was there with our lovely Leyla last night and we had a blast! To see Misterman on my doorstep is a dream come true and we met some lovely folk there, one lady who had flown all the way from Japan on her own to UK for 3 days to see Cillian in Misterman too! Leyla and I walked her back to her hotel that night after the show.

We did the theatre tour thing and got to see the set just before the dress rehearsal at 2pm... the production crew were working frantically on the set fixing stuff up and sound checking. It was funny because the dog barking, growling and screwed up tape noises started while the tour guide was doing her sweet woffle. The other folk with us were like " WTF is that?!!" Leyla & I were the only ones in that group going to see Misterman but the look of intrigue and puzzlement on the faces of the others was amusing. ;D

There are a few changes to Misterman, only subtle ones but they do improve the performance. Cillians positioning on stage (particularly the grave visit scene) Cillian seemed to have more props to chuck around this time and the immense length of upstage direction saw Cillian pounding off to measurable visual shrinkage... this added to the comedy of the play, no wonder the man is exhausted after the performance!

Charlie who is one of the characters Cillian morphs into has to be my favourite even though all the characters are brilliant. Charlie is the vain macho man of the town who does this funny dance to a ploppy 80's ballad and praises Thomas' late father's grocery store where the word 'bananas' becomes a key point of the dialogue!
I am trying to give some snippets here without inducing spoilers!
There were added lighting effects too and Cillian is in great physical form, looking really well!

I had to laugh at the little cloth on a length of elastic attached to a pillar... it's used several times to help clean Cillian up after his chemical and physical shenanigans but when he lets it go it boings off at an angle. LOL

Even from a further distance his little blue twinklers are still beaming over and the sheer power of his voice and physical presence is phenomenal!

I was puzzled with the UK audience though, there was the stunned into several seconds of silence as in Galway but the way the applause broke out was slow to catch at first then only a fraction of the people stood on applause! In Galway they all flew off their seats and raised the roof! I don't know if it was just me but the Irish audience was far more electrifying than the UK audience. The audience are paramount to a performer, they are the most important thing and performers are highly sensitive to the reception. I wonder how Cillian felt the chemistry? It wasn't bad.... but it was odd and surprised me! Still, I'm glad we had a partial standing ovation for our man! ;D

I'm going to pop to Enda Walsh platform on 19th if I can too. I'll woffle on about that if I can go.

Leyla I'm so glad you asked me to spare you the company in London, I had a magical time with you! I'm glad you like sushi too and I loved all your stories! Thank you for letting me drag you all the way up the Bakerloo Line so I could have my pint of organic beer! LMAO I hope that one day we will meet again I really do! Another lovely friendship formed by Misterman again! Plus it brought me back to this forum! There's something quite magical about this play I tell thee! ;D

Just a word of caution again about the linguistics... loudly back pedaling on my earlier posts, having heard Misterman again after 9 months, I do think that it's best to read the book if your native language isn't English or used to Celtic dialects. Maybe just read before the ending so as not to spoil it???

If anyone has any questions about the play please ask.

[brooklynfan]

Thank you so much for that review! I'm so much more excited now! I saw it in NY four times and loved it so much I decided to get tickets for the May 15th performance (first row center mezz, which I hope will be appropiate) and was extremely curious as to how it would play out given the fact the stage is not only elevated but looks to be half the size of the St. Ann's set up which is really just a large raw space that can be tailored to the performance. As for the crowd reaction, the Brooklyn opening night reaction was about the same. Although while exiting, I overheard many people who were in absolute shock and couldn't believe the raw talent involved. Hell, I was blown away by Cillian and I'd been an avid fan for well over a decade. Despite the seemingly unusual initial reaction, the play went on to be just about universally praised by critics, so I can only hope for that to be the case here.

BTW, your review has also inspired me to sign up for the backstage tour!

[leyla11]

Hello everyone. I'm back to Italy, unfortunately. Misterman was absolutely a delight, I only wish I had managed to watch it twice, because for a non native speaker it's quite tough. I think the play resonates in a different way with different audiences...I loved the fact that at the beginning people laughed their head off. Then a little less, then even less, then silence.....that was hilarious to me, they were realising what they were up to! There was a huge applause in the end, though not too many people standing up (I was!!!), but I'm pretty sure it's also because the audience was rather shocked
Cillian is of course amazing, he has a talent for slapstick comedy and he did a terrific job with his voice. He even channels Terry Jones as the whiny neighbour, too funny. You need a lot of energy to perform in this way for 90 minutes and to avoid being carried away in an ambulance and energy is what Cillian exudes, he's truly amazing.
Anyway, I wish I could join you on the last day....I had so much fun in London with lovely Wikkle
only don't know how I could persuade my husband not to: a) think I've gone nuts; b) murder me.

[dulcemirita]

Thanks for the review, although I'm puzzled by the audience's reaction...Maybe it has to do with the abrupt ending of the play that leave you sort of shocked..I definitely will read the play already ordered to the National Theatre following Leyla's info on this forum, since I had a first aproach to the play (an audio) that left me utterly dishearted 'cause it was hard to understand (CIllian talks as a submachine gun sometimes, surely is not his fault, but the hyperactive status of the character) for someone whose english is not her mother tongue language absolutely necessary to read it first. I'm glad you two had a great time in London and I hope Leyla could join us on the last run of the play, but I agree that "hubbie" can think of divorcing , ha, ja..

[leyla11]

Well, I would drag him with me of course! He loves theatre, luckily....I'm seriously thinking about it

[dulcemirita]

A new interview about Misterman on BBC4, this time only Enda Walsh, no cillian, unluckily...Enda starts talking arround 34:32
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01fjwlm/Night_Waves_Jonathan_Haidt_Mozarts_Sister_Hubris_Misterman/

[Pisces]

Great review, Shamrocks!!! CB for that!!!

I wonder if the odd reaction of the audience might have been because they didn't "get it"? Some of them, anyway? Much has been said about how VERY Irish this play is... when I think of that and then put it together with the fact that many of the audience are coming from all over the world where they may know little to nothing about Irish culture (your sweet lady from Japan comes to mind), or may be struggling with understanding the dialect, it seems possible that there may be a chunk of the audience who is somewhat - or totally - lost. That would explain why Galway jumped to their feet to a man, but a non-Irish audience only gave a partial standing ovation.

I did read a review from an average person on Twitter who said that while Cillian was amazing, it got to be a bit monotonous to watch only one performer after an hour. I KNOW this person was probably not as enormous a fan of Cillian as we all are, because NONE of us would be bored with watching Cillian for 90 minutes. ;D But I thought it might explain the mixed reaction. With an audience that size, you're going to get some people who aren't as nuts about Cilly as we are here. Anyway, just thought I would toss in some possibilities to explain the audience reaction.

This play might well be too Irish for me, and I might not know what the hell I was watching either, but I'd still give it a go. The vast majority of people who have seen it say it's incredible.

CB for the amazing review, Shamrocks!!! So happy that you and Leyla got to see it!!

[leyla11]

Apr 16, 2012 5:58:38 GMT -5 Pisces said:

I KNOW this person was probably not as enormous a fan of Cillian as we all are, because NONE of us would be bored with watching Cillian for 90 minutes. ;D

He can read the phone directory to me for 8 hours and I wouldn't mind at all ;D

Seriously, I'm Italian and I loved the play. Since I do not have any Irish background, I don't know how is it like to live in such a village. Yet I can connect with Inishfree on a slightly different level, it reminds me of the Theatre of the Absurd, which I love.
Inishfree can be seen as the world, not specifically as a precise place, the play is about loneliness, misunderstanding, cruelty among human beings, everyone can relate to these feelings, you don't have to be Irish, you just have to listen.

I think the reaction wasn't really because they didn't understand, but mostly because they were rather shocked.

[Tara la Reine]

I think that particular reviewer might just not have an attention span quite long enough for solo theater performances of significant length, since she mentions having the same reaction to Vanessa Redgrave.

[razzthekid]

Ah it sounds amazing. Thanks for your descriptions guys. I love that you met that Japanese girl who was also a huge fan, again showing how far Cillian's reach stretches. Did you tell her about the forum!?

Damn Shamrocks, i rememeber you saying you had a spare for that but i was really trying to avoid the whole thing about it back when it was on in Galway- seen as i was very low on funds and i couldn't justify spending that at all seen as i'd been to Galway to see him already, and to Cork to see the interview too! But now.......retrospect sucks!

Oh well, i'll just hope and pray(even though i dont believe in organised religion! ) that they bring it to Dublin sometime. That'd be a dream come true.

[Pisces]

Apr 16, 2012 7:03:16 GMT -5 Tara la Reine said:

I think that particular reviewer might just not have an attention span quite long enough for solo theater performances of significant length, since she mentions having the same reaction to Vanessa Redgrave.

I thought the same thing.

[leyla11]

Apr 16, 2012 7:37:29 GMT -5 razzthekid said:

Ah it sounds amazing. Thanks for your descriptions guys. I love that you met that Japanese girl who was also a huge fan, again showing how far Cillian's reach stretches. Did you tell her about the forum!?

Actually, she spoke very little English!
We thought it was incredibly brave of her to come all the way from Japan to London by herself and not knowing much English... to see Misterman.

She mentioned she had read the play before because it was very hard for her to understand, but it was quite difficult to communicate, I don't think she can read English. She was awesome, by the way, I'm not sure I would have been as brave

[bunnie24]

Not sure if somebody has already pointed this out; but the 'stunned into silence' scenario happened in both NYC and Ireland too...if I'm not mistaken.

[Pisces]

Seems like every audience (Galway, NYC, London) has been stunned/shocked into silence upon the end of the play... but I think Shamrocks was puzzled by the fact that only a portion of the London audience then gave a standing ovation. You would think that jumping to your feet would be an almost irrepressible urge, when so affected by a performance - I know I would do that! But I suppose some folks are more reserved and reluctant to do that.... hard to believe they wouldn't have been feeling it, though.

[bunnie24]

I seriously wish I could go and see this play; I'd be doing standing ovations ALL over the place no matter how stunned/shocked I am.