Enda Walsh | |
|---|---|
 Walsh at the 2024 Berlinale | |
| Born | 7 February 1967 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Spouse | Jo Ellison |
Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright.
Enda Walsh | |
|---|---|
| Walsh at the 2024 Berlinale | |
| Born | 7 February 1967 Dublin, Ireland |
| Occupation | Playwright, screenwriter |
| Spouse | Jo Ellison |
Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright.
Enda Walsh was born in Kilbarrack, 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 states 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 says 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 Enda 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.
Enda attended Greendale Community School where he was taught by both Roddy Doyle and Paul Mercier. After studying Communications at Rathmines 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 Graffiti Theatre. In 1993 Walsh began working with Pat Kiernan, director of Corcadorca, a collaborative ensemble which devised what Walsh calls 'terrible' [3] plays. In 1996 his Disco 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, who is currently editor of the Financial Times's How to Spend It, moved to London. They live in Kilburn with their daughter, Ada, and their cockapoo, Alvin.
Starting with his experience at Corcadorca, Walsh has never restricted himself to straight plays but has been happy to cross genres. Originally he would write music for one member of the ensemble and opportunities for dance for others. In the list of Walsh's works, there are musicals, an opera, art installations, and radio plays, such as Four Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks for RTÉ and The Monotonous Life of Little Miss P for the BBC.
Many of Walsh's plays including Disco Pigs , [5] Bedbound, Small Things, Chatroom, New Electric Ballroom, [6] The Walworth Farce , Penelope and Misterman, have been translated into more than 20 languages and have had productions throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and the US.
His play Ballyturk [7] premiered in 2014, produced by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival starring Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and Mikel Murfi, and played in Dublin, Cork and London in the same year. In 2017, the production was revived at the Abbey Theatre [8] and in early 2018 played at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, NY. In this revival Tadhg Murphy played 1, Mikel Murfi returned as 2 and Olwen Fouere played 3. [9] Three members of the Gleeson family (Brendan, Domhnall and Brian) played the lead roles in The Walworth Farce produced by Landmark Productions at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, in their first theatrical production together. [10] He adapted Roald Dahl's book The Twits for the theatre with its first production in April–May 2015. [11] An opera entitled The Last Hotel, [12] with music by Donnacha Dennehy, a co-production between Landmark Productions and Wide Open Opera, premiered in the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2015, played in the Dublin Theatre Festival in September 2015 and started an international tour beginning in Royal Opera House, London, in October 2015. He wrote a musical play with David Bowie entitled Lazarus, [13] which premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop (Off-Broadway) from mid-November 2015 to mid-January 2016. The UK production opened at the Kings Cross Theatre in London on 25 October 2016, ending 22 January 2017. [14]
The Galway International Arts Festival has played host to a new departure for Walsh, involving art installation rooms with audio monologues, including Room 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) and Bathroom 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 musical Sing Street adapted from the film of the same name written by John Carney. Like Once, the musical was produced at New York Theatre Workshop, with performances beginning in December 2019. The musical was slated for a spring 2020 Broadway premiere before being postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walsh writes screenplays too, starting with his short film Not a Bad Christmas (1999). He adapted his play Disco Pigs , for the screen and co-wrote the screenplay of Hunger which was directed by Steve McQueen and starred Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who starved himself to death. He also adapted his play Chatroom for a film directed by Hideo Nakata. He is currently under commission for three films, an adaptation of the children's story Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson (for Cuba Pictures), a film entitled Jules in the City based on the life and music of Rufus Wainwright and an adaptation of Gitta Sereny's book Into That Darkness, about the life of Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps.
Walsh states that his plays are about 'some sort of love and need for calm and peace'. [15] He says that his play Penelope is about 'longing, love, lost love". [16] He says that 'all the plays are effectively about theatre, about writing'. [1] Also that 'all the plays are about routines'. [1] Walsh has often suggested that what interests him is 'about me actually getting through the day, you know'. [1] He speaks of his experience, in London, of extreme OCD. 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….' [17] Another statement Walsh made was '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]
 | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(January 2022) |
Theatre
Film
Radio
Four Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks: PPI Award for Best Radio Drama
In June 2013, NUI Galway awarded Walsh an honorary doctorate.
The Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF), founded in 1978, is a cultural organisation that produces an annual arts festival in Galway, Ireland. It also produces new work that tours nationally and internationally, in addition to presenting the discussion forum, "First Thought Talks". The festival maintains a non-profit status.
The Druid Theatre Company, referred to as Druid, is an Irish theatre company, based in Galway, Ireland.
Cillian Murphy is an Irish actor. He made his professional debut in Enda Walsh's 1996 play Disco Pigs, a role he later reprised in the 2001 screen adaptation. His early film credits include the horror film 28 Days Later (2002), the dark comedy Intermission (2003), the thriller Red Eye (2005), the Irish war drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and the science fiction thriller Sunshine (2007). He played a transgender Irish woman in the comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto (2005), which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination.
Events from the year 1996 in Ireland.
Maurice Seezer is an Irish songwriter, musician, and film music composer. Born in 1960, he grew up in the Dublin suburb of Coolock, in a musical family.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane is a 1996 dramatic play by Martin McDonagh which was premiered by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway, Ireland. It also enjoyed successful runs at London's West End, Broadway and Off-Broadway.
Nancy Harris is an Irish playwright and screenwriter. She was given the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2012.
Orla Fitzgerald is an Irish actress for stage and screen for over 25 years.
DruidSynge is a theatre production of the complete plays of John Millington Synge by the Irish Druid Theatre Company. It was the vision of Garry Hynes, the first woman to win a Tony Award for best director, to create the day-long cycle of all six plays;
Garry Hynes is an Irish theatre director. She was the first woman to win the prestigious Tony Award for direction of a play.
John Crowley is an Irish film and theatre director. He is best known for the films Brooklyn (2015) and his debut feature, Intermission (2003), for which he won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Director. He is a brother of the designer Bob Crowley.
Nick Lee is an Irish actor. His work on screen includes Reign ; The Fall (BBC); Jack Taylor (TV3/RTL); Raw (RTÉ); Single-Handed: The Stolen Child (RTÉ); as Michael Collins in Frongoch - University of Revolution (TG4/S4C); The Clinic (RTÉ); Battlefield Britain (BBC); and the final series of Bachelors Walk (RTÉ). His stage work includes: The Changeling ; Dubliners ; Juno and the Paycock directed by Howard Davies ; Pineapple by Philip McMahon (Calipo); Malachy in The Dead School by Pat McCabe ; The Passing written and directed by Paul Mercier and Three Sisters directed by David Leveaux ; Dmitry Karamazov in Delirium by Enda Walsh; Shawn Keogh in The Playboy of the Western World directed by Tony award winning director Garry Hynes ; DruidSynge- The Complete Plays of JM Synge directed by Garry Hynes ; The Year of the Hiker directed by Garry Hynes ; as Michael Hegarty in The Freedom of the City by Brian Friel ; as Patrick Kavanagh in The Green Fool
Kathy Rose O'Brien is an actress from Dublin, Ireland, who has appeared in the Irish television drama Whistleblower, which dealt with the controversial events at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda relating to obstetrician/gynecologist Michael Neary, and in theatre productions including Leaves, The Burial at Thebes, The Birthday Party, The Fall of Herodias Hattigan and The Plough and the Stars. She holds a BA (Hons) in Drama and Theatre Studies from The Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2006.
Penelope is a 2010 tragicomedy play written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh. The play concerns the attempts of four men seeking to win over Penelope in the absence of her warrior husband, Odysseus, who has been away for the previous twenty years fighting the Trojan wars. It was commissioned for the Ruhr.2010 campaign as one of six new plays based on the Odyssey.
The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards recognise outstanding achievements in Irish theatre.
Ballyturk is a play by Enda Walsh. Walsh states that Ballyturk should "‘bypass the intellect and go straight to the bones.’"
The Walworth Farce is a 2006 play by Enda Walsh.
Landmark Productions is a theatre production company in Dublin, Ireland. Established in 2003 by Anne Clarke, Landmark produces plays in Ireland and tours Irish work abroad. The company has an association with several Irish writers including Enda Walsh and Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly. Recent award-winning productions include Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk and Arlington, Conall Morrison’s Woyzeck in Winter and the Donnacha Dennehy/Enda Walsh operas The Last Hotel and The Second Violinist.
Danielle Galligan is an Irish actress, theatre maker, and poet. On television, she is known for her roles in the Netflix series Shadow and Bone (2021–2023) and the RTÉ series Obituary (2023). Her films include Lakelands (2022).
William A. Murphy, better known as Bill Murphy, is an Irish theatre and screen actor, writer and producer. He has appeared in films such as Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000), My Brother's War (1997), Criminal Affairs (1997) and Moving Target (2000). He has also had roles in TV series such as Jack Taylor (2010), Titanic: Blood and Steel (2012), Vikings: Valhalla (2022) and The Gone (2023), and he portrayed Nick Barret on the RTÉ One soap opera Fair City in 2003. He has had roles in theatre and concert productions of Once (2015–2024), The Country Girls (2019), and Joyce's Women (2022). In 2022 he wrote, produced and starred in the short film Lily's Theme.
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