A banker of an idea for a movie

THE night of September 29, 2008, gave Ireland’s its longest-ever hangover. The infamous, ill-informed bank guarantee still casts a shadow over each new charge, each new stealth tax, each new protestation of the need for new ‘funding models’.

It also gave the journalist, Colin Murphy, an idea for a play, Gauranteed!, which he has now adapted for the screen, with director Ian Power.

Guaranteed! began as a 600-word sketch, one of Fishamble’s Tiny Plays. Back then, Murphy was a theatre critic. His short play was commissioned for development by Fishamble. The result, via interviews and freedom-of-information requests, was documentary theatre. The performers carried scripts around the stage like civil-service memos. Its emergence at the same time as the Anglo tapes gave it a ready audience, willing to engage in the arguments, ready to hear the details Murphy had unearthed.