St. Ann’s Warehouse solidifies its place as the American home of Irish playwright Enda Walsh with the searing writer’s latest descent into madness, the one-man tour de force, “Misterman.”
The play, which runs through Dec. 21, tracks the increasingly unraveling mental state of a small-town preacher named Thomas Magill (played by “28 Days Later” heartthrob Cillian Murphy in his American stage debut).
In the course of 90 minutes, Magill seeks out his neighbors — each played by Murphy himself — in an effort to bring religion and salvation to the townspeople. Instead, the interactions only speed Magill’s psychological undoing.
“It’s a very dark piece, but it’s very beautifully created,” said St. Ann’s Warehouse Artistic Director Susan Feldman, whose theater has enjoyed great success with three prior Walsh pieces, including “The New Electric Ballroom” and “The Walworth Farce.”
“This is an epic piece — it’s only one actor, and it’s got a very big scope; it takes place over the course of a whole day, covers a whole town and all these people,” Feldman said. “The atmosphere is big, but because we are a warehouse, it feels like a natural place to produce something like this.”
Cillian Murphy in “Misterman” at St. Ann’s Warehouse [38 Water St. between Main and Dock streets in DUMBO, (718) 254-8779], through Dec. 21. Tickets, $35. For info, visit www.stannswarehouse.org.
Reach Arts Editor Juliet Linderman at jlinderman@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-8309.
