Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright. After growing up in a large family in Dublin, Walsh worked as a film editor and theatre actor before debuting his first play,Disco Pigs in 1996.
Enda Walsh was born inKilbarrack, North Dublin on 7 February 1967. His father ran a furniture shop and his mother had been an actress. He is the second youngest of six children. Walsh has disclosed that he saw his father, a salesman, as the 'lead actor' in the business, but as Ireland's economy fluctuated, so did furniture sales. Notably during the recession in the 1980s, when profits were low, Walsh has said that he was earning more money managing his own newspaper round enterprise than his father was bringing home from the shop.[1] Life in the large family was full of incident and Walsh has claimed[1] that many of his plays find their origin in his relationships with his father, his mother and her friends, his three brothers and two sisters.
He attendedGreendale Community School where he was taught by bothRoddy Doyle andPaul Mercier. After studying Communications atRathmines College and acting for the Dublin Youth Theatre,[2] Walsh travelled in Europe working as a film editor. On his return to Dublin he found few opportunities and so moved to Cork where he acted for theatre-in-education company Graffiti Theatre. In 1993 Walsh began working with Pat Kiernan, director ofCorcadorca, a collaborative ensemble which devised what Walsh has called 'terrible'[3] plays. In 1996 hisDisco Pigs premiered at the Triskel Art Centre in Cork. This was the start of an international career writing for the stage and screen. Feeling himself to be "too comfortable"[4] in Dublin, in 2005 Walsh and his wife,Jo Ellison, editor of theFinancial Times'sHow to Spend It, moved to London and settled in Kilburn with their daughter, Ada.[5]
From the outset of his career, Walsh has moved between different genres and media. Originally he would write music for one member of the Corcadorca ensemble and opportunities for dance for others. Walsh's works include musicals, an opera, art installations, and radio plays, such asFour Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks forRTÉ andThe Monotonous Life of Little Miss P for theBBC.
Walsh's plays, includingDisco Pigs,[6]Bedbound,Small Things,Chatroom,New Electric Ballroom,[7]The Walworth Farce,Penelope andMisterman, have been translated into more than 20 languages and have had productions throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and the US.
The Last Hotel by Walsh and Donnacha Dennehy, Edinburgh International Festival 2015
TheGalway International Arts Festival hosted a project of Walsh's involving art installation rooms with audio monologues, includingRoom 303 featuring the voice of Niall Buggy (2014),A Girl's Bedroom featuring the voice of Charlie Murphy (2015),Kitchen featuring the voice of Eileen Walsh (2016) andBathroom featuring the voice of Paul Reid (2017). These installations have also been shown in the Kennedy Arts Centre, Washington (May 2016) and the Irish Arts Center, New York (May 2017).
Walsh wrote the book of the musicalSing Street adapted from thefilm of the same name written by John Carney. LikeOnce, the musical was produced atNew York Theatre Workshop, with performances beginning in December 2019. The musical was slated for a spring 2020 Broadway premiere before being postponed by theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh has also written screenplays , starting with his short filmNot a Bad Christmas (1999). He adapted his playDisco Pigs, for the screen and co-wrote the screenplay ofHunger which was directed bySteve McQueen and starredMichael Fassbender asBobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who starved himself to death. He also adapted his playChatroom for a film directed byHideo Nakata. He was later commissioned to write three further films: an adaptation of the children's storyIsland of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson (for Cuba Pictures),Jules in the City based on the life and music ofRufus Wainwright, and an adaptation ofGitta Sereny's bookInto That Darkness, about the life ofFranz Stangl, the commandant of theSobibor andTreblinka extermination camps.
Walsh has characterised his plays as being about "some sort of love and need for calm and peace".[16] His playPenelope, he has said, is about "longing, love, lost love".[17] He says that "all the plays are effectively about theatre, about writing" and that "all the plays are about routines".[1] Walsh has often suggested that what interests him is "about me actually getting through the day".[1] He sees his characters as needing "to proclaim and proclaim and proclaim ... and to what? You know, to what, construct rules and sort of mechanisms within their living room but to what end? Only to try to escape them again and probably build more and more routines and patterns and all that sort of thing".[1] Walsh also states "what motivates me in theatre has always been to get close to characters who're on the edge of madness, or have entered it. It invigorates me to think that we're all the same…."[18] Another statement Walsh has made is "I don't like seeing everyday life on stage: it's boring. I like my plays to exist in an abstract, expressionistic world: the audience has to learn its rules and then connect with these characters who are, on the surface dreadful monsters".[2]
Chatroom (2005) – Behind The Scenes Theatre Company, Buckhaven Theatre, Fife.National Theatre, London. & etc.
The New Electric Ballroom (2005) –Munich Kammerspiele.Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival. World Tour including New York, Los Angeles, Perth and London[19]
Sixty Six (2011) – one of 66 writers who contributed a contemporary response to each book of the King James Bible,Bush Theatre, London.
Once (2011) – Musical adaptation of the filmOnce, New York Theatre Workshop (Off-Broadway: December 2011 – January 2012) andBernard B. Jacobs Theatre (Broadway: from March 2012).
Rooms (2016) combining the art installations 'Room 303', 'A Girl's Bedroom' and 'Kitchen', featuring the voices Niall Buggy, Charlie Murphy and Eileen Walsh, which premièred at the Galway Arts Festival last summer, followed by the Irish Arts Center, New York (May 2017).
The Same (2017) with Eileen and Catherine Walsh. Corcadorca Theatre Company. Premiered in February 2017 at Old Cork Prison.
The Second Violinist,(2017) – An opera with music byDonnacha Dennehy, featuring Aaron Monaghan, in the lead role, with singers Máire Flavin, Sharon Carty and Benedict Nelson, together with the Chorus of Irish National Opera, and Crash Ensemble.Landmark Productions and Irish National Opera. Premiered in July 2017 at theGalway International Arts Festival, followed by theBarbican Centre, London (September 2017) and theDublin Theatre Festival (October 2017).[26]
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers (2018) - Enda Walsh adaptedMax Porter's award-winningnovel which premiered at the Black Box Theatre in Galway; In April 2019 the play was presented at the Barbican Theatre in London.
Disco Pigs (1996): George Devine Award and Stewart Parker Awards. Best Fringe Production Award 1996,Dublin Fringe Festival. Arts Council Playwrights Award 1996. Critic's Award 1997,Edinburgh Festival.
Once (2011): Winner of 3Lucille Lortel Awards, including Outstanding Musical, with 4 additional nominations. Best Musical Award 2012,New York Drama Critics' Circle. Outstanding Broadway Musical, Outstanding Book and Director of Musical 2011,Outer Critics Circle Awards, with 4 additional nominations. Distinguished Production of a Musical 2012,Drama League Award, with 2 additional nominations. Winner of 4Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical, with 2 additional nominations. Winner of 8Tony Awards in 2012, including Best Musical and Best Book of a Musical, with 3 additional nominations. Best Musical Theater Album 2013,Grammy Award. Winner of 2Laurence Olivier Awards in 2014, with 6 nominations includingBest New Musical.
Ballyturk (2014): Best Production, Irish Times Theatre Awards. Best Production and Sound Design 2014,Irish Times Theatre Awards.
^abCaulfield, Mary P.; R., Walsh, Ian (2015).The theatre of Enda Walsh. Carysfort Press. p. 75.ISBN9781909325777.OCLC932593851.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
