Owen McCafferty’s play Mojo Mickybo is about a friendship between two boys growing up in Belfast – a friendship that at first is immune to the sectarian violence taking place around them, but which nonetheless is ultimately destroyed by it.
The play’s action is set in Belfast over the summer of 1970. Mojo and his mate Mickybo are two nine-year-old boys from opposing sides of the sectarian divide. They are ‘thick as two small thieves’, playing headers, being mouthy, building huts, and spitting from cinema balconies. The action is played as theatrical flashback, often inhabiting a world of fantasy, such as re-enacting their favourite film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The two performers constantly slip in and out of roles and imaginary worlds, with the violence of The Troubles only obliquely impacting on them – until finally their friendship is destroyed in a way that they only later come to understand.
This is pure storytelling with Bruiser’s dynamic physicality, providing opportunity for a new generation of theatre-goers to experience Belfast’s most treasured, living playwright, and to consider that Mojo and Mickybo represent the division of a benighted country that has spent a century at war with itself.
Mojo: John Travers (2023)
Mickybo: Conor Quinn (2023)
Mojo: Michael Condron (2021-2022)
Mickybo: Terence Keeley (2021-2022)
Director: Lisa May (2021-23)
Set Designer: Stuart Marshall (2021-23)
Lighting Designer: James C McFetridge (2021-23)
Sound Designer / Composer: Garth McConaghie (2021-23)
Visuals: Stephen Hackett (2021-23)
Costume: Gillian Lennox (2021-22)
Scenic Construction: Jim Carson (2021-23)
Scenic Construction: Aidan Payne (2021-23)
Production Manager: Natalie Murphy (2023)
Stage Manager: Jordan Nelson (2023)
Assistant Stage Manager: Robert Crawford (2023)
Assistant Stage Manager: Noora Helin (2023)
Production Manager: Stephen Quinn (2022)
Production Assistant: Ronan McManus (2022)
Production Manager: Rory Casey (2021)
Production Assistant: Emily Moore (2021)
Producer: Lisa May (2021-23)
Co-Producer: Peter Heenan (2021-22)
Assistant Producer: Noora Helin (2023)
Assistant Producer: Peter Heenan (2021)
Assistant Producer: Jess Williams (2021)
Pre-Production: Peter Heenan (2023)
Public History Intern: Catherine Wright (2022)
Video Production: Redbox Creative (2021)
Technical Manager: Cormac O'Kane (2021)
Vision Mixer: Richard Brown (2021)
Camera Operator: Ryan O'Neill (2021)
Filming and Editing: Cormac O'Kane and Richard Brown (2021)
PR & Marketing: Anita Gibney (2022-23)
Tour Booker: Liam McMullan (2022)
