Enda Walsh will make Rooms project 'until he dies'

Enda Walsh has been making a 'Room' at the Galway International Arts Festival for the past 11 years and he doesn't plan on stopping.

The Rooms series is created for the Galway International Arts Festival but has toured in Washington, London and New York.

"From the outside the look like white, very large boxes and you walk into them and you're in a very realistic place," the playwright explained.

Then audio will play from speakers inside the naturalistic room from the perspective of a character that lives in that room or has just arrived in there.

Each Room is like a mini-immersive play about 13 minutes in length.

"I've made one every year with Paul Fahy who designs them.

The first one was a two-star hotel, the next one was a kitchen and I've done a middle bedroom, a waiting room..."

Mr Walsh has said he will continue to make a new Room for the festival every year.

"I decided 11 years ago that I would do one every year until I died," he said.

"There was something that seemed really fresh about the idea and also doing something that amounts over a period of time.

"I figured out that depending health wise and if I don't get struck by a bus, I'll end up doing about 35 of them."

While each 'room' tells its own story, they can be seen in isolation, Mr Walsh knows of some people who go to see the new Room each year as part of the festival.

"It's just become a thing now," he said.

"I've had people who come up to me and we talk about the different rooms and what they liked and rooms that would still resonate with them."

While each room is textually and aesthetically different, Mr Walsh says they are all about isolated characters at a stark moment in their lives.

"Because they're only 13 minutes long, you have this very concentrated version of the character and of a world, and then you leave it. So it's very transient," Mr Walsh said.

"It's sort of like catching a butterfly - It's all very vulnerable and tiny."

This year's latest room is called Dining Room. It's about a man who unravels when his B&B gets a one-star review. We meet him in the dining room of the person who left that one-star review after he has driven across Ireland to find the person and tell them what he thinks of them.

Another room is also available to book at this year's Galway International Arts Festival. 'Changing Room' was written during the pandemic and is about an older man coming out as gay.

Both Rooms are available to book now. The Galway International Arts Festival runs until the 28 July.

By Eithne Dodd

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