Making history with Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk

“Follow the writing,” is the simple rule of thumb for actor Cillian Murphy when it comes to deciding what roles to choose. And that is regardless of whether the medium is film, TV or theatre.

Cillian is currently rehearsing for the Galway production of Enda Walsh’s new play, Ballyturk, alongside fellow cast members Stephen Rea and Mikel Murfi. The play, also directed by Enda Walsh, will open at Galway International Arts Festival next month and is sold out. It’s the latest collaboration between long-time friends Enda and Cillian.

“I was lucky as a kid to meet Enda, and he gave me my first big role,” says Cillian, referring to Disco Pigs, the 1996 play that announced Enda Walsh’s arrival as a dramatist to be reckoned with. Since that Corcadorca production, the two have worked together on other projects, most notably the 2011 hit, Misterman.

Actor and director Mikel Murfi is another friend and collaborator of long standing and the ease between the men is obvious as they discuss how rehearsals are progressing. While Stephen Rea is a newcomer to the group, the role he takes on in the play was written with his voice in mind, according to the author.

“It’s the most ambitious thing I have ever done,” says Enda of Ballyturk. “The form of it excited me; it’s a large play about death.”

The seed for Ballyturk was sown two years ago when Enda was having a conversation with his daughter, then aged six, and she asked the question “so people die?”’