Enda Walsh: “Bowie told me he was sick – he wanted to leave on his own terms”
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What musical influences shaped Enda Walsh's early life?
Sorry. I'm just dismissing the greats of the Russian canon here.
That's very funny. Hello, lovely to talk to you.
How are you? So, Andy, you're a celebrated playwright and screenwriter.
How did moving to Cork impact Enda Walsh's career?
People will know your plays like Ballytork, Once, Lazarus, of course, the musical you made with David Bowie at the end of his life. You've written the screenplays for films like Hunger, small things like these. And you're going back now. To where it all started for you, 30 years ago, you're putting on the legendary Disco Pigs again and in Cork. So you're going to reflect a bit with us today through five songs you've chosen. And music, I think, has been very much a part of your professional and your personal life. What were your first musical experiences as a kid?
Well, as a tiny kid, there wasn't much music in the house, but I had older brothers and sisters.
What was Enda Walsh's experience meeting Cillian Murphy?
And we had a couple of records. And I remember as a sort of five-year-old listening to the Barry Manilow record and learning the lyrics. I mean, it was the campest, I mean, campest thing ever. It was either that or Helen Reddy, which is also, which is Australian sort of like... singer beloved by gay men in the 1970s and 80s. So I sort of like grew up with those albums when I was like about five or six. But, you know, I mean, apart from that, there wasn't a great deal of music in the house.
How does Enda Walsh reflect on his father's influence in his work?
I don't think I don't remember.
And what kind of kid were you? Were you kind of bookish and shy and retiring and that?
A little bit. A little bit sort of like I was sort of outshone by... I had a younger brother. I come from a family of six. I had a younger brother who was super, super intelligent. And I was just a little bit quiet. I mean, I loved him.
What significance does music hold in Enda Walsh's creative process?
He was a great kid. But I was happy that he sort of had all this spotlight. And in a noisy house, I guess, I probably... I mean, we were all pretty, you know, like full-on characters. But I was the quieter one for sure, I would say. And as I sort of got a little bit older into a sort of... 10 or 12 I was yeah I felt this sort of pressure of being sort of 10 and 12 I sort of went into myself a bit I think In what way? Well, I was sort of like into, I was getting into sort of poetry at the time, which was probably dangerous for a 12-year-old sort of moping about the house, you know, like Dostoevsky and things like that, you know, sort of like Joyce and stuff like that. I really was, I was into, I was getting into sort of like books about probably sort of reading about them and things about them like that, you know, like, but yeah, I am, yeah, no, but I had a sort of like, you know, it was a really, really lively Irish,
middle class upbringing, I would say.
Tell me a bit about your dad, because I think you say that your dad has inspired a lot of your work in some shape or form.
yeah i sort of like i mean i i yeah i think he's i find him in every play my dad was a he was um he had furniture shops and then sort of ireland you know like what were the recessions and all that type of thing you know he had loads of money then absolutely zero money so i was watching the sort of the failure of this guy sort of like but also the success of him you know like through all my my youth
How did Disco Pigs become a phenomenon in theatre?
and could see the pressure around them of like just trying to keep sort of six kids going when things were really, really hard in the 80s. So it was my first real experience of seeing an adult, obviously, and going, oh God, they're really, they have no idea what they're doing. And they're struggling. And the vulnerability of that just sort of has always stayed with me. And of course, now, of course, I'm sort of like I'm growing. I've grown into my dad's face. So he's dead a long time. So it's sort of I think about him every every day, of course, because I can't help it because he's just looking back at me.
What was it like collaborating with David Bowie on Lazarus?
There he is. Yeah. OK, so your first music choice today is a bit of early human league here being boiled. What does this bring you back to?
Well, I just sort of looked at the date because I was unsure, but it was 1978. So I think I was about 11.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What musical influences shaped Enda Walsh's early life?
0:00–0:40
2
How did moving to Cork impact Enda Walsh's career?
0:40–1:18
3
What was Enda Walsh's experience meeting Cillian Murphy?
1:18–1:47
4
How does Enda Walsh reflect on his father's influence in his work?
1:47–2:05
5
What significance does music hold in Enda Walsh's creative process?
2:05–3:35
6
How did Disco Pigs become a phenomenon in theatre?
3:35–4:09
7
What was it like collaborating with David Bowie on Lazarus?
4:09–4:37
8
What lessons did Enda Walsh learn from working with David Bowie?
4:37–30:49