Stage: Illumination once again

Michael McElhatton says he has never had any need to seek counselling. Until recently. But that, he stresses, was purely to research for his role as a counsellor in Conor McPherson’s latest play, Shining City.

So what did he learn as part of his research? “Mostly how to sit!” he admits, explaining that counsellors must position themselves “in an open way, never with, say, their arms folded.” Tellingly, that’s exactly how McElhatton sat during most of this interview, although he laughingly rejects any suggestion that this means he should have lingered a little longer with the counsellor.
More seriously, Michael does acknowledge that he can relate slightly to a central tension in McPherson’s work. “An unusual encounter” occurs in the play between two men – the counsellor and a man seeking help after claiming to have seen the ghost of his dead wife. This encounter becomes “a desperate struggle between the living and the dead – a struggle that will define and shape both men for the rest of their lives.” The fact that McElhatton himself has lost two friends to death brings the story a little closer to home.
“I wouldn’t call what happened to me a struggle between the living and the dead but two very close friends of mine have died,” he says. “One was at drama school with me in RADA about twelve years ago. He got cancer. And the first time you experience the death of a loved one you do become aware of your own mortality. Both he and the other friend got cancer, though the other guy, another actor, was in his 40’s. So losing friends that way was a benchmark, a milestone in my life. It also made me appreciate life more and be glad to be alive and to do the things I do. Especially in the sense that they were both actors, neither of whom had reached their full potential.”
The later could be said to be equally true of McElhatton himself despite post-RADA roles in plays such as a Young Vic/West End production of Enemy Of The People, Dublin-based productions of plays such as The Wexford Trilogy and An Ideal Husband plus film parts in movies like Intermission and The Actors. More recently he’s also made the transition into writing and has penned Paths To Freedom, Fergus’s Wedding and Spin The Bottle. Indeed, the latter career development has kept him out of theatre for more than three years and he is “more than happy” to be staging a comeback of sorts in McPherson’s latest opus. The play has already been performed in London where it was hailed as ‘a compulsively gripping new play’ and a ‘beautifully acted production.’ It is directed by the author himself.
“In fact, working in Shining City is the most enjoyable experience I’ve had in theatre” he says. “Because it’s very rare that all the elements come together. Sometimes you can have a great play but a poor director, or a couple of great actors and some poor actors so when all the elements work it really is a sheer delight. Conor is directing it and he is fantastic and there is a great cast. Also, because it is a co-production you have the production standards of the Royal Court and the Gate Theatre so in that sense it’s really a rare experience. So it is my favourite experience in theatre ever.”
Part of McElhatton’s joy in working on Shining City is that now that he himself is a writer as opposed to being simply an actor he “better appreciates” the artistry of Conor McPherson.
“Being a writer definitely broadens your perspective on a play” he says. “So often when you are an actor you are just looking at your part and your character’s journey, whereas, as a writer, you’ve to sit back and look at all the other characters and all the other elements that make up the piece. So that is one of the by-products of having become a writer over the past few years. Either way, Shining City is a magnificent play, at every level, and I’m really proud to be a part of it.”

Shining City is currently running at the Gate Theatre.