A Small Enclosed Room with Alfie Murphy will be touring the UK kicking off at Soho Theatre, Dean Street on Tuesday 13 May, 6.30pm and ending at Onefest, Saturday 12 July. This dark comedy is a new play which explores the complexities of masking and autistic fantasy.
The production was created by renowned autistic artist Cian Binchy (star of ITV’s, The Level) in collaboration with Dublin based Shaun Dunne and Leah Moore. The play also features autistic performer, Anna Constable.
A Small Enclosed Room With Alfie Murphy explores a fantasy world that delves into the societal process of masking- what was the inspiration for creating a piece that explores this topic?
The whole purpose of this is to educate people about how a lot of autistic people feel like we need to mask in order to fit in. It’s kind of second nature to some of us; we do it so much we forget which is the real us… society makes us feel like we have to be this or that, and this shows the whole exhaustion of masking. With Alfie, because he’s a guy, he’s thinking ‘I’ve got to move onto this bit and this bit’ whereas with Anna’s character describes what it’s really like to have to mask and she talks about how exhausting it is.
Masking particularly is more associated with autistic women, not to generalize but… I think it could be because autism was seen in men because women are better at fitting in, or maybe because women are trained more to mask and to fit in than men whether you’re on autistic or not. In the show nobody even says the word ‘autism’ but Alfie Murphy and the Alfie-Murphy-Antagonist (the variety of characters portrayed by Anna including Alfie’s bandmate and Alfie’s interviewer) are what I may call autistic-coded
It displays how autistic people are often interrogated with questions we don’t have the answers to. A perfect example of this is when Alfie says ‘this doesn’t feel like an interview it feels like an interrogation’, you know, people want to know so much about us but they don’t want to hear us out, they almost want to use us as experiments- people are obsessed with trying to understand what we mean when we say things; if you tell me why you do this you’ll help me understand autism!’ rather than just asking questions to understand *you* – like it’s not about the people, it’s about the condition. Like it’s the disability before the people.
The play highlights Alfie Murphy, a rockstar turned guru, and other characters throughout the show. What is your process when creating characters?
Alfie Murphy started off as an idea for a character before he even had a name.
Back in 2018 I was rehearsing for another show and doing lots of yoga warmups, I wanted to write a show about someone with a real bad temper and a lot of anxiety, who wanted to find yoga to be a calmer person and not have such bad mental health. Learning about how people turn to yoga and meditation
Also to show even the people who do yoga or meditate every day still have problems, it’s not like they go away like *that*. You might look at someone who’s really good at yoga and think ‘oh they’re so great I wish I could be like them!’ when really, they’re struggling
Then during lockdown, I came up with this character called ‘Angry Alfie’ when all the Associate Artists at Access All Areas came up with characters for a zoom meeting – we were thinking about what we might like to do after lockdown. I came up with this rock star Alfie from a band called the Camden Stoners…and I realised I could put these things together. The ‘Angry Alfie’ character was originally from the 70s but I wanted to change it to make it a little more true to me, Cian, so I changed it to the noughties. The reason I got the name Alfie Murphy is because the name ‘murphy’ is a very Irish name, and I myself am born in London with part Irish descent.
This guy who was once a rockstar with alcohol and drug problems who then wanted to get away from where he used to be, but realises in wanting to reinvent himself, that the only way you can do that is by really looking at yourself – the thing you want to reinvent yourself from. Why do I keep going from this situation to that situation? If you keep trying to escape from your past, to be with different people in a different place, the same situation will come up and you’ll have that same old feeling. When we try to find a new situation, we might think we’re over the past trauma but in fact the thing that helps us get over is another situation that makes the other one seem not as traumatic.
With the other character – the fact that it’s a different person but the same [actor] it shows what I was saying before about how you can change the place and change the name but you find yourself in the same damn situation.
Any time he feels like that other person is winning, it feels to him like he is backed into a corner or stuck surrounded by circling sharks.
This production is part of a wider initiative to amplify learning-disabled and autistic voices in theatre. What does it mean to you to be part of a project that centers neurodivergent creativity in such a bold and authentic way?
Well, it’s very important to me because there aren’t enough spaces in the world for people like us. It’s important to take these opportunities when we can because they don’t come often. But also, it’s important not to have the attitude of ‘oh how nice you let us perform because we’re disabled’. People in the arts industry need to understand that they shouldn’t just be like ‘even though we’re disabled it’s so great we’re performing’ – I mean yes it is great – but they shouldn’t just expect us [to be grateful].
Because we have a lot to offer!
Working alongside Access All Areas and The Lowry emphasizes your work to amplify underrepresented voices and artists. What do you hope to achieve for the future of this production?
I hope to broaden out my work to people who might not know anything about autism or the neurodivergent world, to open peoples eyes. For neurotypical people to have just that little bit more understanding about autism. But it’s also to give to my community and to use my success to make life easier for those who can’t speak up for themselves
When we perform, a lot of us speak up for the people who can’t speak for themselves. I’m doing this for my community, to inspire people, and to help people, and to give to my community what I can give.
I do this for people like my younger brother who is nonverbal and is not able to express himself verbally (of course you can express yourself without speech).
Can you share a favorite moment or memory that you have through the creation of this production?
There are many! I worked with so many people to create it, but a really great moment was working with Norman Bailey and Valentine – my character was being pushed by bad things and I had to push and push against all this negativity – it was so fun – I felt like I wasn’t just writing something but I was going on a journey.
Also when I was working with Norman, we were coming up with Alfie’s backstory. We had this idea of a silly clown character called Raspberry Jam who gets bitten by a fish and everyone laughs at him – the clown was being teased by everybody – I was picturing something like a weird-looking man in dungarees and orange hair and he’s a fool… he tries to be the center of attention but he doesn’t have any tricks! We decided Alfie had seen that on television and he was scared of it.
As he gets older, every time Alfie thinks of that image of the fish biting the clown, he pictures the fish getting bigger and bigger—like his problems getting bigger and bigger—to the point where it’s a shark!
The clown on TV also had this bit where he wanted to be the center of attention and he had this box but when he opened it there was nothing in the box! When the box is opened there’s nothing in it because Alfie’s antagonists are always taking whatever’s inside. Alfie’s not the star of the show, he’s just a clown.