This piece is a dramatisation and musical interpretation of the bizarre chess game played between the titular character in Becket’s Murphy and a psychiatric patient, Mr Endon. Although the characters never meet at the chessboard in the novel, they are brought together here, thought the two still do not acknowledge each other. The game itself is a dialogue between two polar ways of viewing the world: Mr Endon, although labled as insane, moves the pieces into beautiful configurations, with an almost balletic sense of choreography. Murphy, with his relative sanity, attempts to understand and immitate Mr Endon, but is ultimately unable to, defeated by the slightest deviation from his logical understanding of chess. The two pianos accompany this dance, aiming to somehow interpret the piece’s movements, whilst forming their own imitative duel.

Ensemble Version: Fizz Margereson (Mr Endon) | James McIlwrath (Narrator, director) | James Redelinghuys (Murphy, composer) | Tom Sissons (Piano) | Jan Li Tan (Piano)

Solo Version: James Redelinghuys