The first eight astonishing plays by Enda Walsh, 'one of the most dazzling wordsmiths of contemporary theatre' (Guardian). Bursting onto the theatre scene in 1996 with Disco Pigs, Enda Walsh has delivered a sustained fusillade of strikingly original plays ever since. This volume, with a Foreword by the author, contains: The Ginger Ale Boy (1995), Walsh's very first, previously unpublished play, a Cork cabaret about a ventriloquist who loses control. Disco Pigs (1996), his breakthrough play, winner of the 1997 George Devine and Stewart Parker Awards, a play that 'does for Irish kids what Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting did for young Scots' (Daily Telegraph). Misterman (1999, revised in 2012), in which we meet Thomas Magill on his obsessive mission to bring God to the townsfolk of Inishfree. bedbound (2000), his Fringe First Award-winning play, in which a father and daughter are trapped in their own compulsive and claustrophobic story. The Small Things (2005), a 'harrowingly precise and poetic' (Guardian) exploration of language and our need for words to survive. Chatroom (2005), a chilling tale of teenage manipulation that was written for the National Theatre's 2005 Connections season. Also included are two previously unpublished short plays, How These Desperate Men Talk (2004) and Lynndie's Gotta Gun (2005), written during Walsh's time working with European theatremakers.

A strange, tender love story from the author of Disco Pigs and The Walworth Farce. In a waiting room, inside a tower, Isla waits for her number to be called. A young woman finally understands her fate. And a young man faces a stark decision. In the midst of a bleak and terrifying world, Arlington is a compelling ode to the human spirit and its power to endure. It premiered at Galway International Arts Festival in 2016 in a production by the festival and Landmark Productions, directed by the playwright. Enda Walsh's play Arlington is published in this edition alongside three short theatre installations - Kitchen, A Girl's Bedroom and Room 303 - performed at the 2016 Galway International Arts Festival under the collective title Rooms.

John Kane sits on a hospital trolley. Very shortly, a giant lobster, two women called Mary, a very old man and a jazz percussionist arrive. Then everything starts. Enda Walsh's Medicine is a dark and frequently absurdist play. Devastatingly funny and profoundly moving, it examines how, for decades, we have treated those we call 'mentally ill'. It was first produced by Landmark Productions and Galway International Arts Festival as part of the 2021 Edinburgh International Festival, prior to performances in Galway and New York. It was directed by Enda Walsh, with a cast including Clare Barrett, Aoife Duffin and Domhnall Gleeson, with drummer Sean Carpio. This edition also includes Walsh's play The Same, about two women who meet in a psychiatric institution. Published here for the first time, it was produced by Corcadorca in 2017, and won The Irish Times Irish Theatre Award for Best Play. 'One of the most fiercely individual voices in the theatre today' New York Times

A gut-wrenchingly funny, achingly sad play featuring jaw-dropping moments of physical comedy. The lives of two men unravel over the course of ninety minutes. Where are they? Who are they? What room is this, and what might be beyond the walls? Enda Walsh's play Ballyturk premiered at Galway International Arts Festival in 2014. It subsequently toured Ireland before opening at the National Theatre, London.

Disco Pigs is the award-winning play about two warped teenagers that confirmed Enda Walsh's place in the forefront of young Irish dramatists and was filmed in 2001 with Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy. Pig and Runt are two 17-year-olds who share everything: birthday, language, worldview - and that moment when pop songs and life-changing orgasms flash by and last forever. Disco Pigs was first performed by Corcadorca Theatre Company at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, in September 1996, and subsequently at the 1996 Dublin Theatre Festival. It received its UK premiere at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 1997, before transferring to the Bush Theatre, London, in September 1997, and then on international tour. It won the Stewart Parker Prize for the best Irish debut play and the George Devine Award in 1997. Also included in this volume is Sucking Dublin, a fierce and uncompromising short play about a group of five individuals tormented by a rape in a claustrophobic, drug-infested Dublin. Sucking Dublin was first performed by the Outreach Department of the Abbey Theatre at Basin Lane Youth Reach Centre in Dublin in 1997. It also played at the Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College, Dublin, from 4 November 1997.

The second collection of plays from the multi-award-winning Irish playwright, Enda Walsh. 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). 'One of the most fiercely individual voices in the theatre today' New York Times 'Enda Walsh makes his own distinctive stage music in the fury of his writing talent and the irresistible surge of his blatant theatricality' Independent

A virtuosic study of one man's descent into religious mania in small-town Ireland. Inishfree might seem like a quaint Irish town, but fierce evangelist Thomas Magill knows better. He knows that jovial Dwain Flynn is a miserable drunk, that Timmy O'Leary enslaves his lovely mother, and that sweet Mrs Cleary is a blasphemous flirt. It is down to Thomas, with God on his shoulder, to save this sinful place. But the townsfolk are not listening, an angel is misbehaving and a barking dog will not be silenced. Just how far will Thomas go in his quest for salvation? Enda Walsh's Misterman was first performed by the author in a Corcadorca Theatre Company production at the Granary Theatre in Cork in April 1999, directed by Pat Kiernan. A revised version was produced by Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival, and performed at the Black Box Theatre, Galway, as part of the Galway Arts Festival, in July 2011. This edition of the revised play was published alongside the production at the National Theatre, London, in 2012, directed by the playwright, starring Cillian Murphy.

A dark fable of the emotionally stultifying effects of small-town life, from the author of Disco Pigs and The Walworth Farce. Three sisters in a remote fishing village, trapped in the years that have passed since their halcyon days at The New Electric Ballroom, are still obsessed by darker memories of something resembling romance. Enda Walsh's play The New Electric Ballroom was first staged by Druid Theatre Company at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2008 and later at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The production won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award and was revived on tour in 2009.

Mr and Mrs Twit are not very nice. In fact they're extremely nasty. They're nasty to each other, and they're VILE to everyone else. They hold a family of monkeys hostage in a cage and force them to stand on their heads. ALL THE TIME. We told you they weren't very nice. Can the monkeys find a way to show those vicious Twits what for? Mischievously adapted from Roald Dahl's story, acclaimed playwright Enda Walsh has turned The Twits upside down. This revolting revolution was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in April 2015.

The six teenagers in Chatroom never meet each other, they just communicate via the internet; conversations range in subject from Britney Spears to Willy Wonka to suicide. Jim is depressed and talks of ending his life and Eva and William do their utmost to pursuade him to carry out his threat. From this chilling premise Enda Walsh has forged a funny, compelling and uplifting play which tackles some of the issues of teenage life head-on and with great understanding. "Chatroom" was first seen as part of the "Shell Connections" series at the National Theatre in London in 2005. This play contains strong language.

A savage, tragicomic take on the classic Greek myth of Penelope, wife of Odysseus, whose story is recounted in Homer's Odyssey. It's 11.30 a.m. and already it's thirty-three degrees Celsius. At the bottom of a drained swimming pool, four ridiculous men face their inevitable deaths, and play for an unwinnable love. Enda Walsh's play Penelope was first performed by Druid Theatre Company in Druid Lane Theatre at the Galway Arts Festival in July 2010. The production subsequently toured to Edinburgh (where it won a Fringe First Award), Helsinki and New York. A version of the play in German had previously been performed at Theater Oberhausen, Germany, in February 2010.

A remarkable play about what can happen when we become stuck in the stories we tell about our lives. Visceral and tender, The Walworth Farce combines hilarious moments with shocking realism. It's 11 o'clock in the morning in a council flat on the Walworth Road in London. In two hours' time, as is normal, three Irish men will have consumed six cans of Harp, fifteen crackers with spreadable cheese, ten pink biscuit wafers and one oven-cooked chicken with a strange blue sauce. In two hours' time, as is normal, five people will have been killed. Enda Walsh's play The Walworth Farce was first performed by Druid Theatre Company at the Town Hall Theatre, Galway, in March 2006, before touring to Cork and Dublin. It was revived at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in August 2007 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First Award, and received its London premiere at the National Theatre in September 2008.

When an Irish busker and a young Czech mother meet through a shared love of music, their songwriting sparks a deep connection and a tender, longing romance that neither of them could have expected. Based on the much-loved Oscar-winning film, Once is an extraordinary, original and irresistibly joyous celebration of love, friendship and music. With music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, it has a book written by Enda Walsh. Once won eight Tony Awards when it opened on Broadway in 2012, including Best Book and Best Musical. It opened in Dublin in February 2013 before transferring to the West End.

A startling collection of plays by playwrights working in the north and south of Ireland, all of which have been groundbreaking events in contemporary Irish theatre At The Black Pig's Dyke by Vincent Woods depicts a group of mummers in the borderland between North and South, blending their rituals of death with the all-too-modern assassins going about their awful task; in Hard To Believe by Conall Morrison an army intelligence agent for the British invokes his Protestant preacher grandfather and his turncoat father who married a Catholic and thereafter denied his background; in Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh two friends bonded in their fantasies and shared baby-talk face into Cork city on their seventeenth birthday; Frank Pig Says Hello by Patrick McCabe (Winner of the 1997 George Devine Award) is about the sullen meanness of a village community towards an innocently simple young man; in Language Roulette by Daragh Carville a group of young people in Belfast come together for a reunion and the underlying atmosphere is anger and revenge; Bat The Father, Rabbit The Son by Donal O'Kelly is a powerful personal story about the reversal of a father-son relationship where the son is envious of the father's unambitious expressiveness.Foreword by the award-winning Irish playwright, Sebastian Barry

Two early plays from the acclaimed Irish writer Enda Walsh. bedbound is a ferocious two-hander about a father-daughter relationship gone horribly and terrifyingly wrong. bedbound was first performed at The New Theatre, Dublin, as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival 2000. It received its UK premiere at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, during the 2001 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and was revived at the Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, London, in January 2002. misterman is a strange and haunting monologue about a missionary who'll stop at nothing. misterman was first performed by Enda Walsh in a Corcadorca Theatre Company production at the Granary Theatre in Cork in April 1999, directed by Pat Kiernan. A later version was produced by Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival, and performed at the Black Box Theatre, Galway, as part of the Galway Arts Festival, in July 2011.