Hurling comedy for Arts Centre
Nenagh Arts Centre and Up Till Dawn is excited to present Pucked by Cathal Ryan. Pucked is a fast paced, comedic, theatrical, one-man blockbuster!
Cathal Ryan comes from The Ragg and jokes that there, you’re born with a hurley in your hand. Immersed in the GAA from a young age, he ‘lived in that bubble’ until he found theatre at the age of 17. With a grand-uncle involved in Thurles Drama Group, he went to plays often throughout childhood, but it never occurred to him that he could do it. Or, as he says, he never did it in case he’d miss training.
Cathal went to NUIG in Galway to study performance and made up for lost time by totally immersing himself in theatre and performance. Cathal was then accepted onto The Lir Academy's BA Acting degree, claiming one of the 16 places on offer. He completed his training in October 2021.
Pucked as a play came out of a conversation that Cathal had with Brendan Maher, artistic director of the Source Arts Centre in Thurles. Cathal recalls: “Brendan attended an online graduation play of mine that fellow Lir graduate and Clonmel native Jack Reardon directed and told me to get in touch when I graduated.”
Cathal had always been interested in creating his own work and had started thinking of ideas around a celebration of the GAA and his love of hurling, combined with ideas of masculinity and expectations of young men, particularly those growing up in rural Ireland.
Cathal adds: “With Pucked, I don’t want to teach anything but I’d hope that people coming to the play, particularly young men, might feel that there are thoughts in it that they’d share.”
With encouragement from dramaturg Gavin Kostick and Bryan Burroughs, both tutors at The Lir, Cathal approached the Source Arts Centre who funded a first draft of Pucked. “My classes with Bryan were a huge inspiration for the show,” Cathal adds. “He really opened my eyes to the limitlessness of theatre.”
Pucked recounts Matty’s one dream to play on his senior team. When he finally gets called up, we join him as he learns the hard way, that playing senior isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.
The play is as fast-moving as the game itself, bringing to life Matty Daly, his mam and dad, his team-mates and arch-nemesis Conor Dooley, the inhabitants of the village where he lives - an Everytown of rural Ireland. The highs of playing, the lows of the WhatsApp group you’re not in. Funny and moving in turns, the passion for hurling is clear throughout in a show that puts the audience on the sidelines of a game and a life, written by an actor who knows every move from the inside out.
TICKET DETAILS
Pucked will be performed at Nenagh Arts Centre on February 15 at 7.30pm. Tickets are €15 concession / €18 standard. Suitable for ages 14+. Book via website: www.nenagharts.com or contact our reception at 067 34400.