INTERVIEW: Jenn Murray on a girl’s story that grows more powerful by the day
Photo: Jenn Murray stars in A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing at the Irish Repertory Theatre. Photo courtesy of the Irish Rep / Provided by official site.
The story of how the powerful play A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing came to the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan is a story of how the pandemic has shifted culture and art. During these troubled times, actor Jenn Murray decided that she wanted to develop a one-person theatrical project, and she started looking around for various opportunities. Eventually, she landed on the acclaimed novel by Eimear McBride and its theatrical adaptation by Annie Ryan. That was the beginning of a long journey.
“Basically, it was as a result of the pandemic,” Murray said in a recent phone interview. “The film industry had shut down, and I was sort of frustrated. And I thought I wanted to do something by myself, so I thought about one-woman shows. I found this play, and it had been done six years before. And I hadn’t seen the production, but I knew the piece was amazing. And I read it, and then I emailed the agent of Eimear McBride, who wrote the novel, and pitched essentially for the rights. And they gave them to me, and then I was looking for a director. And a friend of mine had seen Nicola Murphy’s production of Pumpgirl and said it was extraordinary, and I contacted Nicola and took her out for coffee and convinced her to do this.”
Then, Murray kept building the production from the ground up. She found a producer, and the plan was to mount the show in a small theater on the Lower East Side. However, they needed to raise a good deal of money to make that a reality, but luckily Murphy is an associate with the Irish Rep. So she made the connection and pitched the idea to the off-Broadway institution, which is known for presenting work by Irish and Irish-American writers.
“I came in and performed it for them, and they decided that they would produce it, which was fantastic because I had set up a a website to raise $30,000 to produce it myself,” Murray said. “But I didn’t have to do that because the Irish Rep came in and sort of saved the day. That’s the genesis of the project.”
It’s a rare thing for an actor to be the leading creative force that finds the play, the director, the producer and the theater, but this piece spoke to Murray and inspired her to remain dedicated to the project. The show follows a girl from birth until the age of 20. There are hardships involving her family life and strict rules involving her Roman Catholic upbringing. There are also scenes of sexual violence, so the show is recommended for mature audiences. As the director states in a program note, the title character was failed at every turn by people in positions of power. The experience of learning more about this girl, according to Murphy, has been difficult, yet empowering and beautiful.
“To be honest, it has become more and more powerful,” Murray said. “In the beginning, I wanted something to do. I wanted it to be a one-person show so that I could execute it as quickly as possible without needing too many people to rally, and I knew that it was a tour-de-force piece for an actor. And also I had lived in London for eight years and then in Los Angeles for a year. I’ve only lived in New York for two, and one of those years had been the pandemic. And even though I’ve done Harry Potter and Disney and stuff, you still have to find your way into the industry at all times, no matter where you are, so my objective was really to find a piece of material that would showcase what I can do. And then as Nicola and I started working on the material I realized how extraordinary it was — because if it’s not great writing, you can sort of pick it apart very quickly. Whereas this piece I’m still [picking it apart]. I must have done that show 55 times, and I still don’t know the answers.”
Murray, who has appeared in Maleficent, Mistress of Evil and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, credits McBride, the original author, with writing an extraordinary novel, and also Ryan, the playwright who adapted the piece for stage. She was won over by their careful writing of this important story, and she decided to take a gamble and find a way to bring the story once again to the stage. The gamble paid off. A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing has sold out its entire run at the Irish Rep; Murray wasn’t sure if an extension would happen, but she was hopeful. The one-woman show is playing in the smaller W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre.
“With this piece, it is very difficult material, but to be honest as an actor, I see myself more as the vessel,” she said. “So my objective every night is appreciation that I have the opportunity because there are so many actors I know that are unemployed, and it is never lost on me how fortunate I am to be working and to be doing something that is difficult. And the second thing is to just tell the story. It’s for me to get out of the way, so, yes, I use my mind and my body and my spirit, but it also isn’t about me and how I feel. It’s about her. Because the writing is so rich, I just feel like I become her, and then at the end I leave.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing, starring Jenn Murray, is currently playing at the Irish Repertory Theatre in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
