GAA-inspired theatre blockbuster takes stage in Waterford 

'Pucked' a new fast paced, comedic, theatrical, one-man blockbuster is coming to Waterford this February.

Telling the story of the young and ambitious Matty Daly. Immersed in the GAA from birth, Matty has one dream and one dream only, to play on his senior team. 

When Matty 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 show tackles issues such as self- confidence, individualism, masculinity and ambition with humour and energy, all the while celebrating the greatest sport on earth, hurling.

Pucked is written by and stars Cathal Ryan, who comes from The Ragg, in Tipperary 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.

'Pucked', as a play came out of a conversation that Cathal had with Brendan Maher, artistic director of the Source Arts Centre in Thurles.

“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” said Cathal.

“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."

In 2022, Cathal met up with director Jack Reardon, the emerging Clonmel director who recently directed the enormously successful 'From out the Land'.

Jack said: ‘When Cathal told me about 'Pucked', I asked to read it, and immediately got on the phone to Cliona Maher, [then artistic director of Clonmel Junction Festival], to say that I thought I’d found our headline production.” 

“I was excited in bringing theatricality to the one-man show format, and the script, as well as Cathal as a performer, allows so much scope for that," he said.

The play is as fast-moving as the game itself, bringing to life Matty Daly, a young hurler who dreams of making it to the senior team, his mam and dad, his teammates and arch-nemesis Conor Dooley, the inhabitants of the village where he lives - and every town of rural Ireland.

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.

Kicking off its All-Ireland tour at Source Arts Centre in Thurles, 'Pucked' will be visiting Theatre Royal in Waterford on February 25.