A Misfitting Playboy

Take a group of young offenders. Dress them in orange jumpsuits. Place them on a grimy South London estate, tell them to get on with their community service, and leave them outside during an electrical storm. The result? Five superhero Londoners with a penchant for accidentally killing people and burying them in concrete.

I’ve been watching E4’s Misfits since it first started in 2009. The script is often brash, and certainly inappropriate for those of a sensitive disposition (think a great deal of swearing and allusions to sexual positions, preferences, graphic anatomical details… if its rude, you name it, they’ve got it) but is also hilarious pretty much every step of the way, and is absolutely filled with sharply witty comedy gold. A great deal of this wit and wonder is down to the cast, a group of young British actors who should be reaping the rewards of their hard work with film roles and red carpets before the year is out. Misfits itself has already won a BAFTA for Best Drama Series in 2010, and if the progression of the current third season is anything to go by, they’ll be collecting a few more at next year’s ceremony.

Sadly, for many Misfits lovers out there, in this third season we had to say goodbye to a dearly beloved character with a mouth like a drug fuelled ashtray and a sexual voracity only eclipsed by Hugh Heffner. I am talking, of course, about Nathan. Played superbly by Robert Sheehan, this character often dominated each episode by playing the comedy role against whatever slightly more serious situation there was at the time. While every Misfits character is wonderfully performed, there was something really special about Nathan, and fans duly rallied against his departure from the show. But when the third season opened, he had indeed been replaced by (I have to say) another actor equally capable of playing the necessary comedic role, by the name of Joseph Gilgun – but however funny he may be, he’s still no Nathan.

Sheehan’s decision to leave a show so clearly on the path to greatness could be criticised by some, but according to interviews, Sheehan was set on developing his acting talents in other mediums; first in film, where he starred in ‘Cherrybomb’ alongside Rupert Grint , and then in his first theatrical role, as the titular playboy Christie Mahon in J. M. Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World. Some friends and I decided to check out our favourite misfit in the flesh, and headed down to the bright lights of the Old Vic in the final week of the play's run. 

The theatre was packed when we arrived in Waterloo. Gaggles of school groups thronged the Old Vic's stately staircase, evidently a result of teenage girls badgering their GCSE drama teachers into taking them to see a relatively unknown Irish play. We headed up, and up, to the Upper Circle, where we squashed ourselves into seats directly relative in size to the amount we'd paid. There was also a sudden flurry in the shedding of clothing;  while preparing for a chilly November evening, most seemed to have forgotten that heat, in fact, rises. More so in a packed auditorium. Even more so when over half of said auditorium is comprised of young girls with rising flush levels. The curtain went up and the play began; no sign of E4's favourite rising star until a good ten minutes in. People shuffled. Currents of whispering around our (relatively) cheap seats; the Irish accents appropriate for the Irish play were evidently proving a tough nut to crack for young London ears. And then Sheehan stumbled through the onstage door, to a collective gasp of girlish breath, with an overly audible amount of high pitched squealing mixed in. Luckily, these noises weren't repeated much over the rest of the performance, as I'm a stickler for appropriate behaviour in the theatre (call it a result of being brought up in a very theatrical family). A comedy of heroism and romance in equal parts, the play details the story of a young man who arrives in a sleepy Irish village, claiming he has killed his father. and run away. He is lauded as a hero by the villagers, and captures the attention of the innkeeper's young daughter, Pegeen. They are about to be married when a sudden twist changes the outcome of the plot.

Sheehan's performance was commendable; despite resorting at times to a very similar characterisation as the one that's made him famous, he nonetheless conveyed a seriousness and depth to the role, and kept his comic timing. One personal gripe of mine was his apparent need to clutch his back - after many drama classes, its one of the main things I've always retained: never hold a limb to convey pain! The play overall was enjoyable, but sadly missed the mark it could have made, which I think was owing to the cast's slight unease and discomfort with the language. 

 There's certainly no doubt that a large portion of the tickets for this production were sold purely on the value of Sheehan's name. However, that fame has managed to push a gently amusing play into the forefront, and made theatre as a genre perhaps slightly more accessible to people who would normally choose to watch a TV show instead. Even if it's only some giggling girls ogling a celebrity face right now, that's still a group of people who may discover later on that they really enjoy the theatre. In which case, Robert Sheehan deserves congratulation for stepping outside his familiar acting zone, and trying something new.

The Playboy of the Western World