Since our inaugural season, Origin Theatre Company has maintained a long-standing relationship with Enda Walsh. In 2002, we produced the U.S. premiere of Walsh’s Misterman, his first professional production in the United States. Misterman enjoyed a sold-out Off-Broadway run before transferring to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and the Dublin Theatre Festival, where it was nominated for Best Production.

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In 2008, Origin presented the New York premiere of Walsh’s Disco Pigs as part of the inaugural 1st Irish Festival, in partnership with Solas Nua. In 2018, Irish Repertory Theatre revived Disco Pigs as part of the festival’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

 

In 2026, newly appointed Artistic Director Labhaoise Magee and Executive Director Aidan Cleary honored the company’s longstanding relationship with Walsh by dedicating the entire festival lineup to his work. The 2026 festival included a mainstage revival of Misterman, a concert celebration of Walsh’s musical songbook, and staged readings of Disco Pigs, Medicine, The Same, and The Twits. The festival culminated in a gala honoring Walsh, where he received the formal title of Ard Seanchaí, Irish for “Chief Storyteller.”

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You can read more about Walsh below.

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Enda Walsh (he/him) is a playwright and screenwriter who shot to fame when he won both the George Devine Award and the Stewart Parker Award in 1997 with his play Disco Pigs. In 2007 and 2008 Enda won Fringe First Awards at two consecutive Edinburgh Festivals for his plays The Walworth Farce and The New Electric Ballroom. The former led The Guardian to name him "one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre." In 2011 Once, Enda's adaptation of the film by John Carney, opened off-broadway. Critically acclaimed, it moved to Broadway in 2012, where it picked up eight Tony Awards, including Best Book for Enda. The West End run of Once opened in April 2013. 

 

Since his initial success as a playwright, Enda has gone on to write for the screen. His 2008 biopic, Hunger, told the story of the final days of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands and won a host of awards, including the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Heartbeat Award at the Dinard International Film Festival. It was nominated for seven BIFAs (including Best Screenplay), six British Film and Television Awards (including Best Screenplay and Best Independent Film) and BAFTA's Outstanding British Film Award 2009. Enda's opera The Last Hotel had its world premiere at the Lyceum Theatre as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and transferred to Dublin, London and New York. He recently worked on the new musical, Lazarus, with David Bowie, which opened at New York Theatre Workshop in December 2015 and transferred to Kings Cross Theatre in London in November 2016. His play, The Same, was commissioned by Corcadorca to mark the company's 25th anniversary and was performed in the old Cork prison in February 2017.

 

Enda has had a strong relationship with Galway City and the Galway International Arts Festival from the very beginning of his writing career. Recently the festival, along with Anne Clarke’s Landmark Productions, have produced his plays, Misterman and Ballyturk. His play, Arlington, had its world premiere at the Galway International Arts Festival in July 2016 and his opera, The Second Violinist, premiered at the festival in July 2017. In 2013 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Galway University. 2021 saw two new works for the stage - Medicine, starring Domhnall Gleeson, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival before transferring to the Galway International Arts festival.

 

In an ongoing project he has made 9 installations, called collectively Rooms, with Paul Fahy and GIAF: Room 303, A Girl’s Bedroom, A Kitchen, Bathroom, Office 33A, Waiting Room, Outdoor Changing Room, Bedsit, The Middle Bedroom, Cloakroom, Dining Room, and The Baby’s Room. The First Child, Enda's latest opera, debuted in 2021 with Landmark Productions/Irish National Opera. Further theatre credits include Safe House with Anna Mullarkey (2024), Medicine (2021), an adaptation of Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers (2018) for Complicité, The Same (2017), produced by Corcadorca; Lazarus (2016) with David Bowie. Most recently Enda wrote the book for a musical adaptation of the 2016 film Sing Street by John Carney which was due to open on Broadway in spring 2020. The House with Nexus Studios, which Enda wrote and executive produced, was nominated for Best Single Drama at the BAFTAs 2023.

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In Film & TV Enda is currently working on the new film adaptation of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Amazon MGM Studios and EON Productions and his project with Clio Barnard, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, is in production. His films, Die My Love, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson, and Ish co-written and directed by Imran Perretta, had their UK premieres at LFF 2025. In 2024, Enda's film adaptation of Claire Keegan's novel Small Things Like These starring Cillian Murphy also premiered to great acclaim.