New Electric Ballroom

by Enda Walsh

A dark fable of the emotionally stultifying effects of small-town life, from the author of Disco Pigs and The Walworth Farce.

Edinburgh Fringe First Award 2008

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. (2011-01-14)

Genres: Plays

64 pages, Paperback

First published July 17, 2008

About the author

Enda Walsh (born 1967) is an Irish playwright born in Dublin and currently living in London. Walsh attended the same secondary school where both Roddy Doyle and Paul Mercier taught. Having written for the Dublin Youth Theatre, he moved to Cork where he wrote Fishy Tales for the Graffiti Theatre Company, followed by Ginger Ale Boy for Corcadorca Theatre Company. His main breakthrough came with the production of his play Disco Pigs in collaboration with director Pat Kiernan of Corcadorca. Since then he moved to London, where he has been particularly prolific over the past five years, bringing his productions to thirteen stage plays, two radio plays and two screenplays.

Winner of the 1997 Stewart Parker and the George Devine Awards, he won the Abbey Theatre Writer in Association Award for 2006. Productions of his plays at the Edinburgh Festival have won four Fringe First Awards, two Critic's Awards and a Herald Archangel Award (2008). His plays, notably Disco Pigs[1], Bedbound, Small Things, Chatroom, New Electric Ballroom[2] and The Walworth Farce, have been translated into more than 20 languages and have had productions throughout Europe and in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. He has written two radio plays, with Four Big Days in the Life of Dessie Banks for RTÉ winning the I PA Radio Drama Award and The Monotonous Life of Little Miss P for the BBC commended at the Gran Prix Berlin. His commissioned work includes plays for Paines Plough in London, the Druid Theatre in Galway, the Kammerspiele in Munich and the Royal National's Connections Project in London. He wrote the screenplay of the film Disco Pigs and co-wrote the screenplay of Hunger which was directed by Steve McQueen and stars Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker who starved himself to death in protest over British rule. Hunger won numerous awards (see below) including the Caméra d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival, Best Film Award from the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2009 and a nomination for Best British Film at the British Academy Film Awards. He wrote an adaptation of his play Chatroom for a film directed by Hideo Nakata which was selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. He is currently under commission for two films, an adaptation of the children's story Island of the Aunts by Eva Ibbotson and a biography of Dusty Springfield.

Reviews

[Jonathan Daley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Certainly not Walsh’s best but his worst is still a lot better than most other plays. He’s a dazzling wordsmith with a real knack for creating gorgeously theatrical moments. The starkness and rawness of the writing is so startlingly affecting, like a punch to the gut.

[Sheri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished reading this about a week ago, and just don't want to file it away. Don't want to move on to the next thing, and instead just wallow in its glow.

Ever since seeing it at UCLA's Freud, I've been reeling in amazement and wonder at Irish playwright Enda Walsh's breathtaking talent, insight and poetry.

[Dimitris Mandrinos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Οι ανθρωποι μιλανε. Ειναι στη φυση τους. Δε μπορεις να το αρνηθεις. Θα μπορουσες αλλα τοτε θα επιβεβαιωνες εκεινο ακριβως που θες να καταρριψεις και τι νοημα θα ειχε αυτο; Προσπαθωντας να πεις οτι οι ανθρωποι δε μιλανε θα φουσκωνες απλως τον ωκεανο απο λεξεις που μας κυκλωνει. Γιατι ολοι οι ανθρωποι μιλανε.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An absurdist play about three older women who are shaped by the stories they've experienced and are hiding from the world. Oddly funny and dark, it's at times moving and disturbing in the same moment. It really made me want a cup of plain tea and some coffee cake...

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well all righty then
I can’t really imagine this being staged. Like, the language seems like it was meant to be read, almost. How much can you get from it just by listening? Curious...

[Shane O'Neill]

...what?

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never seen an Enda Walsh play on stage.
So I must be missing something in the text.
New Electric Ballroom is one of his most popular plays.
But I'm not really sure why.
There are a lot of British plays like it.
It's dark.
Funny.
And very very English.
Many of the references I am not sure about.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw the play first at St. Ann's Warehouse. The grief is much more apparent in text, although none of the comedic effects are lost.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

This may actually 'play' well (a local production that got good reviews impelled me to read it) ... but as a strictly read script it's a bit of a snooze.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

characters are like sardines in a tin, mackerel caught in a net or goldfish in a plastic lunch bag. Claustrophic and frantic and great