BLUE THUNDER
THEATRE
★★★★★ Fringe Biscuit
★★★★ The Irish Times
★★★★ Feeling Good
“Rare, true, profound.” Framed magazine
Blue Thunder is an immersive play written to be staged inside a parked 17-seater taxi minibus for an audience of 12 at a time.
The play is set in small-town Ireland late at night. Our minibus is parked around the corner from the local chipper. Brian (60) the owner of the van has been recently kicked out of the house by his wife and he’s about to bed down for the night. He gets an unexpected call from his two sons, Dara (30s) who still lives in the family home and Ray (30s) who lives in Zurich working in financial services. They need a lift home after a night of heavy drinking. When it’s revealed that Dara has tried to persuade Ray to go with him to his ex-girlfriend’s flat to “give her a scare” the three men are forced to deal with each other in a way they’ve never had to before in order to prevent Dara from doing something he’ll regret for the rest of his life.
Blue Thunder premiered at VAULT Festival 2019 in London, running for three weeks. A second production was staged in translation at the TREND Festival 2020 in Rome and toured to Molise, Arezzo and Milan. A radio adaptation was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in Nov 2020. A third production ran at Dublin Fringe festival 2023 and toured to Longford, Roscommon, Galway, Mayo and Donegal.
WINNER: VAULT Festival Innovation Award 2019
NOMINATED: Best Ensemble at Dublin Fringe Awards 2023
Radio Pick of the Week. The Times (for BBC Radio 4 adaptation)
Audio Pick of the Day. The Guardian (for BBC Radio 4 adaptation)
One of Image Magazine’s unmissable Dublin Fringe shows
One of The Irish Times Dublin Fringe shows to catch
Radio Pick of the Week. The Times (for BBC Radio 4 adaptation)
Audio Pick of the Day. The Guardian (for BBC Radio 4 adaptation)
“Rare, true, profound. Blue Thunder takes us into the maze of fears of three men. Full of pathos, amazement and excitement.” Framed magazine
“Superb script.” Fringe Biscuit Magazine
“It has a totally authentic feel. Grab a ticket for this wonderful ride.” Irish Independent
“Padraic Walsh’s engrossing miniature…the audience is eyeball to eyeball with the actors. It requires absolutely spot on performances, not a blink out of place, and it delivers just that.” Lyn Gardner, Stagedoor
“Sharply written, perfectly directed and brilliantly acted.” Irish Independent
“There is fluidity to the performances…that is simultaneously elegant and grotesque; skilled and contained. They say as much in stillness as they do in chaos.” The Irish Times
“It’s an impressive and at times powerful piece of theatre.” No More Workhorse
“The fourth character is the minibus. This works spectacularly well as a mini-theatre.” Irish Independent
“Walsh’s script becomes a compelling knot of irreconcilable grievances.” Feeling Good, Chris McCormack
“Although it takes place in real time in a single location, the play develops with expert dramaturgy, accentuated by the lively rhythms of Walsh’s words.” La Repubblica
“On stage you will find the characters and you will not see the actors, because of the intensity and rhythm of the dialogue. Walsh immediately makes us understand from these details the poverty, a single salary, the disintegration of the couple, the choice to have children by religious faith, alcohol and loneliness despite being part of a large family.” Il Terzo News
“A simple setting, with complex meaning. Three men, three solitudes and one common denominator: love. Blue Thunder shows how loneliness is a universal feeling, how differences can lead to empty and how silences can turn into pain.” Quarta Parete Roma
“A really beautiful and exciting show. There is a great complexity to each character. Untold stories, unspoken engagements, immobility, a desire for change induced by others: these are just some of the themes in Blue Thunder, which investigates them without superficiality, probing the souls of three men.” Sarascrive.com
“A great show. The van is the confessional where guilt is admitted and accusations are launched, pieces of truth are told and rewired, where one gets naked as in a locker room: the conflict is generational and all male.” Accredditati
“Highly engaging. It is easy to forget about the actors and to identify with the characters.” Shockwave magazine
VAULT Festival, London, Feb-Mar 2019
Cast
Gary Lilburn
Jamie Beamish
Niall McNamee
Director Cathal Cleary
Producer Jessie Anand
Photography Sam Taylor
TREND Festival, Rome, Dec 2020
Cast
Marco Cavalcoli
Mauro Lamanna
Gianmarco Saurino
Director Mauro Lamanna
Translator Maurizio Mario Pepe
General organisation Pietro Monteverdi
Produced by Divina Mania
Dublin Fringe & Irish Tour, Sept-Oct 2023
Cast
Gary Lilburn
Eoin Geoghegan
Seán Doyle
Director Cathal Cleary
Producer Kelly Phelan
Designer Mae Leahy
Production Manager Sean Dennehy
Stage Manager Sophie Coote