bedbound & misterman: two plays

by Enda Walsh

In bedbound, a father and daughter share a small bed. He talks frantically about his extraordinary past in furniture sales; she talks no less compulsively about anything at all, to fill the terrifying silence in her head. In misterman, we enter the head of Thomas Magill, an unstable man whose mission is to bring God to his fellow townfolk of Inishfree.

Genres: Plays

64 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright born in Dublin and currently living in London. Walsh attended the same secondary school where both Roddy Doyle and Paul Mercier taught. Having written for the Dublin Youth Theatre, he moved to Cork where he wrote Fishy Tales for the Graffiti Theatre Company, followed by Ginger Ale Boy for Corcadorca Theatre Company. His main breakthrough came with the production of his play Disco Pigs in collaboration with director Pat Kiernan of Corcadorca. Since then he moved to London, where he has been particularly prolific over the past five years, bringing his productions to thirteen stage plays, two radio plays and two screenplays.

Winner of the 1997 Stewart Parker and the George Devine Awards, he won the Abbey Theatre Writer in Association Award for 2006. Productions of his plays at the Edinburgh Festival have won four Fringe First Awards, two Critic's Awards and a Herald Archangel Award (2008). His plays, notably Disco Pigs[1], Bedbound, Small Things, Chatroom, New Electric Ballroom[2] and The Walworth Farce, have been translated into more than 20 languages and have had productions throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. He has written two radio plays, with Four Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks for RTÉ winning the I PA Radio Drama Award and The Monotonous Life of Little Miss P for the BBC commended at the Gran Prix Berlin. His commissioned work includes plays for Paines Plough in London, the Druid Theatre in Galway, the Kammerspiele in Munich and the Royal National's Connections Project in London. He wrote the screenplay of the film Disco Pigs and co-wrote the screenplay of Hunger which was directed by Steve McQueen and stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who starved himself to death in protest over British rule. Hunger won numerous awards (see below) including the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Film Award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2009 and a nomination for Best British Film at the British Academy Film Awards. He wrote an adaptation of his play Chatroom for a film directed by Hideo Nakata which was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. He is currently under commission for two films, an adaptation of the children's story Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson and a biography of Dusty Springfield.

Reviews

[Jennifer Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the rhythms and stream-of-consciousness talk in bedbound. I heard it read in the Triskel Arts Centre when I was in Cork and it made a huge impression on me.
Misterman was dark and excellent. I'd love to see if performed - I can imagine Cillian Murphy doing an incredible performance in this role.

[Rachel Linn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a few steps away from obsessed with Misterman, but I just read Bedbound today. These plays are clearly complimentary in style and in theme. The isolation of these three characters is overwhelming. At the same time there is so much violent energy bubbling over the stage that you fear someone else will stumble into the scene and risk real violence. These two plays are some combination of Blasted, Trainspotting, and Happy Days. To me, that's the best recommendation I could give it.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uh...pretty fucking weird!