As in Fleeto, Cunneen uses a rich, flexible iambic pentameter to create a new kind of verse drama, holding the drag of unreflecting naturalism at bay, and emphasising the truly tragic dimension of the carnage he describes. And although we see the characters interacting, we most often hear them speak in monologue, describing in that clear, Shakespearean rhythm the horror they see, and their response to it. The play Wee Andy was inspired by the work Paddy did with young people in Polmont Young Offenders Unit who had been convicted of crimes of violence. In workshopping his play Fleeto, it became clear that all these young men felt a great affinity for the victim in that story - a character called Wee Andy. He was the figure with whom they all seemed to connect most deeply and personally. They said it was because they felt equally trapped by the circumstances of their upbringing and shared his sense of powerlessness. The primary aim in writing Wee Andy was to present the hopelessness of Wee Andy's position, and question where he might reasonably expect help and salvation to come from.
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