Can this really be the first London performance for Kabosh's Mojo Mickybo? Apparently so - this well-established Northern Irish company have toured America and were award-winners at both Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe festivals, but have never made it to Old Blighty's capital. What a loss! Their merging of stunning new writing and precisely executed physical performance is vastly superior to most studio theatre, being taut and tightly paced, imaginative and emotionally charged. I will admit a bias – as the product of an Irish Catholic mother and Protestant father, this tale of the Belfast ‘troubles', set in the 70s, was full of references and resonances close to my heart. And as the mother of sons, the theme of masculine pride and relationship to violence in growing boys is one of great personal interest.
Mojo and Mickybo, two little boys from opposite sides of the lines, develop their friendship through a shared love of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and a mutual distaste for the tough-boy tactics of the other lads in the local park. These characters, a tender mix of confessed fears and war game bravado, are played with an extraordinary and powerful presence – and the actors play a dozen or more other characters too, from both sets of parents to boy bullies and garden-fence gossips.
In theatrical style, Kabosh have an affinity with Molthpeace's The Well Being, sharing with that production a ferocious energy and highly tuned ability to depict fast changes of character and scene purely through the physical and verbal dexterity of the actors. This is apparently the last ever outing for this show – but Kabosh, please come back soon!