Enda Walsh directs new cast of Disco Pigs at Cork’s Everyman

The 30th anniversary production of Enda Walsh’s cult play Disco Pigs opened at the Everyman in Cork, starring Aoife Meaney and Séamus McLean Ross as the titular characters.

Both actors, who share a birthday on 26 November 2000, were selected from hundreds of applicants and discovered the coincidence while rehearsing in the old Thompsons building on MacCurtain Street.

Meaney, a 25‑year‑old from Clare, and Ross, a Scottish actor, tackle the play’s notoriously phonetic script, written as a hybrid Corkonian pidgin. They work with a dialogue coach and draw on the city’s ambience, rehearsing in a shared city‑centre flat to capture the rhythm of the original setting.

Walsh, now 59, returned to Leeside to direct the two‑hander, guiding the cast through the chaotic world of Pig and Runt – two 16‑year‑olds navigating a mad night out in “Pork City”. The actors report a collaborative atmosphere, with both comfortable offering suggestions and adding personal touches to the characters.

Meaney highlighted the script’s opacity as essential to the characters’ private world, while Ross praised the melodic Cork accent, saying it adds fun to the performance. The production revives the 1996 hit that originally launched Cillian Murphy and Eileen Walsh.

Source: Irish Examiner. Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels.