Mojo Mickybo (NHB Modern Plays)

By Owen McCafferty

Two Belfast lads, Mojo and Mickybo, relive the summer of 1970, when they were growing up in the city, playing headers, building huts and re-enacting cowboy movies.

At first, their friendship is immune to the sectarian violence taking place around them. But nobody is safe from it forever...

Owen McCafferty's play Mojo Mickybo is an unsentimental portrayal of innocence betrayed by communal hatred. It was first performed at Andrews Lane Studio, Dublin, in October 1998.

The production subsequently toured in Ireland and Scotland in 1998 and 1999.

A feature film version, Mickybo and Me, was released in 2004, adapted and directed by Terry Loane, with Julie Walters, Ciarán Hinds and Gina McKee in supporting roles.

The play was revived at the Arcola Theatre, London, in 2007, afterwards transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in the West End.

'Mojo Mickybo marries the polished ferocity of Howie the Rookie with the chirpy candour of Disco Pigs... This play is an energising reminder of the fact that all you need for truly magical theatre is a writer inspired by the thought of the stories that can be made on the stage' - Scotsman

'A glorious, vivid little play full of verbal swagger... creates vast emotional ripples... small but lethal' - Guardian

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Release date: Dec 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781788505116

Owen McCafferty

Owen McCafferty is a Belfast-based playwright. His plays include: Quietly (Abbey Theatre, Dublin and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival, 2013); an adaptation of JP Miller’s Days of Wine and Roses (Donmar Warehouse, London, 2005); Scenes from the Big Picture (National Theatre, London, 2003); Shoot the Crow (Druid, Galway, 1997; Royal Exchange, Manchester, 2003); Mojo Mickybo (Kabosh, Belfast, 1998); No Place Like Home (Tinderbox, Belfast, 2001) and Closing Time (National Theatre, 2002). Scenes from the Big Picture won the John Whiting Award, the Meyer Whitworth Award and the Evening Standard Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright in 2003, making McCafferty the first writer to win all three awards in a single year.