Tony Guerin

World-renowned playwright and life long friend, John B. Keane, had this to say about Cuckoo Blue:

This is a play of great power, passion and humour. A beautiful play that will travel far.

Michael Donovan, art's critic, Kerry's Eye:

Cuckoo Blue, a tough, uncompromising play packed Siamsa Tire, no problem. It certainly was the "strongest" piece of theatre I've ever experienced and presented a frightening inside look at life, politics, greed, bigotry and sex in an Irish town. The Lartigue production under Danny Hannon was flawless and the cast of nine magnificent. Garret Stack as a young badly beaten drug dealer gave the kind of performance that garnered an Oscar for Sinatra in From Here to Eternity. Denis Mahony as a Garda, Maurice O'Sullivan as a builder and Sean Moriarty as an itinerant were remarkable. The Garda Station scenes, brilliantly acted, were relentlessly shocking

Jmmy Woulfe, art's critic, Limerick Leader:

Tony Guerin was a detective sergeant in central Dublin where he accumulated a vast knowledge of life and people. Guerin has dug a deep channel in Cuckoo Blue with varying strong currents gushing turbulently through a white water of twists and turns. He develops a strong plot into relationships which go somewhere between illicit and downright sinister.

Donal Nolan, critic for 'The Kerryman', describes the play as follows:

The play focuses on an event in Listowel in the mid nineteen forties when the local Canon refused to allow the remains of a woman, who had died while giving birth to a child outside of wedlock, to enter the church. This footnote to history has been impressively brought to life by the acting talents of the 'Lartigue Theatre Company' and the story telling talents of Tony Guerin. The play revolves around a number of characters, loosely based on their real life counterparts, who were central to the conflict that finally emerged between the parishioners and their Canon. It makes for fascinating viewing, rarely wavering as the story develops onstage, and the premiere kept the audience enthralled from beginning to end

John McCarthy (Hostage in Lebanon with Brian Keenan and Terry Waite) saw the play in Siamsa Tire, Tralee. In his book, A Ghost Upon Your Path he praises it as follows:

Solo Run centres on an ageing former All Ireland footballer, Con Casey. As the local hero he is looked up to, but, although courageous, he lacks the intellect for such a position. Con has a hunchback son he is ashamed of. Not a particularly unusual character or situation then really. Only his wife knows the kind of man Con is and she has to deal with his doubts and worries. The community looks to their hero, Con, to do battle with the canon over the young woman's funeral. The canon chains the gates of the church, and Con, driven on by the roars of the crowd breaks the chain and enters the church with the coffin. Guerin's play is well written and alongside the anger and action there are plenty laughs. Interestingly, during the most powerful scene, when, under the threat of excommunication, Con starts to throttle the canon with the same chain he had taken from the church gate, there are laughs and cheers from the audience. Guerin's play is just right for this moment in Irish history; people are struggling to express their anger with the Church as the last vestiges of infallibility crumble.

Fr. Pat Moore, a priest in the Kerry diocese, described the play as follows, under the heading, Catharsis in Listowel:

Con Casey, The King of Carrig, is seen as the measure of a full man because he has won an All-Ireland medal with the county team. He is, in the words of the local canon, "Too old to play and too young to be a memory." When integrity is called for, he steps off the "conveyor belt" that everyone is on in Carrig to stand up for the rights of a Christian burial for Josie O' Sullivan. As we see Con Casey approach his finest hour, the moral dilemma between Con and the priest, is pushed aside and dropped in what locals call a "draw". It is consigned to the humour of equating a coffin with a football. The third theme is introduced at this point; that of a violent home when a father cannot face up to the physical imperfections of his own son. In this violent household, silence, sarcasm and the threat of brute force lock a man into a life he can not escape from, yet, Nora, his wife, suggests she can. The audience deeply appreciate this glimpse into their historical past as they see these themes offered and left unresolved. The role of the All-Ireland footballer in the community, the authority of religion that men rail against yet women see as the repository of necessary unsatisfactory solutions to life's paradoxes, and finally, the theme of violence in home life. These three themes are clearly exposed.

Declan Hassett, arts critic, Examiner, said in his review:

There is a madness of the Wild West in Tony Guerin's Hummin'. That one of his characters is a gun-toting guy called Howdy and the play's climax would not have been out of place at the OK Corral comes as no surprise at all by the time Hummin' stampedes to its dramatic conclusion. Geraldine Plunkett as Mike's lover, Jennie, gives new meaning to the term body language. This is a towering performance by any standard. Hummin' went into a gallop in the second act and we were introduced to thatcher Howdy (Marvellous Mal White) on his trusty steed. This must rank as one of the funniest entrances in modern theatre. I loved Brian Doherty's conniving nephew Andy Dee. I'm not sure how the capital's chattering classes will take to Hummin' but my gut feeling is that Tony Guerin and Red Kettle have a summer hit on their hands.

Photo of Geraldine catching Brian by the balls.
Photograph of Geraldine holding a hatchet over Peadar Lambs head.

Excerpts from Luke Clancy, arts critic, Herald:

Somewhere in rural Kerry there's a mad household in which Mike Dee (Peadar Lambe) and Jennie (Geraldine Plunkett) are waving sharp objects in the air and retiring for some afternoon delights on the dilapidated scratcher before rising again to stir up a little more mayhem. This little menage is full of lust, ("Lust, lust, lust, lust is all you need.) sings Mike at one point. Tony Guerin writes brilliant characters, creatures who find themselves incapable, under any circumstances, of saying the expected. The overall feeling of Hummin' is a little like being confined in a room with a slightly touched, possibly alcoholic relative who has taken it into his head to sort-things-out once and for all. An extraordinary play. A startling show.

Fr. Pat Moore:

Guerin's third play in his native town brings us into his darkest landscape yet. Deadly violence and deadly language are heaped on deadening relationships in a bleak landscape that mocks the nursery rhymes and music that nurture and affirm us. With a hatchet sense of humour we are focused on the hunger for land, for sex, and for the tender human quality that knits the daisy chain of life into something noble. The amorality, violence, and wit is compared with contemporary American screen writers. We, the audience, need to watch our language lest it bring us into dead relationships that Guerin exposes us to; for when people are stripped of their past, their God given dignity, controlled and abused in word and deed, violence is the only option.

Theatre Review, extracts from:

To say that Guerin's play is one of the most innovative within its genre in recent years would not be going too far. It bucks expectations at every turn with its language, characters and movement..