A young Cillian Murphy had been asking for stage play opportunities from the now-defunct Corcadorca Theatre Company’s creator, Pat Kiernan, for a while. When his chance came in the form of “Disco Pigs,” he ran with it. The moment the script of Enda Walsh’s play landed on his lap, Murphy knew he’d struck gold. “I sensed there was something great in it,” the actor recounted in an interview with The Irish Times. His intuition worked in his favor because the teenage love story eventually made it to numerous stages around the world and was adapted for film in 2001.
In theatre, Murphy picked up a valuable wisdom nugget — paying attention to his surroundings — which he shared with “60 Minutes.”
He went on to appear in more plays, including “The Shape of Things,” “Love Song,” and “The Seagull.” In 2006, Murphy took a break from theatre. After a while, he was back on the hunt. He told Live Journal, “There’s a couple of other things that I’m kind of looking at doing this summer, but I’m actively searching out a new theater job, actually. It’s been about four years since I’ve been on stage, and it kind of feels like the time is right to go on …”
Murphy continued to work on stage afterward until 2019, when he played the leading role in “Grief is the Thing with Feathers.”
