Playwrights Canada Press Enda Walsh book Paperback 288 pages

This volume of remarkable plays charts the development of one of the most strikingly original playwrights in contemporary theatre. It collects together four full-length plays – three of which were produced by Galway’s Druid Theatre Company, three of which were performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, and two of which transferred to London’s National Theatre – along with two fascinating short plays and a Foreword by the author. The Walworth Farce (2006) is a madcap yet tender play about what can happen when we become stuck in the stories we tell about our lives. The New Electric Ballroom (2008) is a dark, glitter-dusted fable of the emotionally stultifying effects of small-town life. In a savage and riveting take on the classic Greek myth of Odysseus’s wife, Penelope (2010) sees four ridiculous men facing their inevitable deaths, and playing for an unwinnable love. Ballyturk (2014) saw Walsh reuniting with actor Cillian Murphy after Disco Pigs and Misterman for a jaw-droppingly physical play in which the lives of two men unravel over the course of ninety minutes. Also included in this volume are two short plays, My Friend Duplicity (2010), which went on to inspire Ballyturk, and Room 303 (2011).