As part of her ongoing post-show Q&A series, after the matinee next Saturday 15 December 2018, Mates co-founder Terri Paddock returns to Soho Theatre for the world premiere of new rock ‘n’ roll comedyChasing Bono. Got any questions?
I do love my matinee Q&A slot at Soho Theatre. And for some non-Christmassy Christmas fun, I’m looking forward to returning to chair one with the company of Chasing Bono, a brilliant new page-to-screen-to-stage comedy with an impeccable rock ‘n’ roll pedigree…
1970s Dublin. Friends Neil McCormick and Paul Hewson share the same ambition: to form bands and become global superstars. Paul changed his name to ‘Bono’ and his band became U2. Neil’s band never got off the ground.
1987. Dublin gangster Danny Machin wants a fair and balanced account written of his life whilst now-writer Neil is wondering where his went so wrong. Danny sees an opportunity and kidnaps him. Neil becomes Danny’s biographer. Danny becomes Neil’s shrink, probing the reasons for his succession of disastrous decisions.
Written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (The Likely Lads, Porridge, The Commitments), Chasing Bono is a lovingly fictionalised account of music journalist, author, broadcaster and U2 biographer Neil McCormick’s 2005 memoir I Was Bono’s Doppelganger, a rock ‘n’ roll fable about the pursuit of fame and coming to terms with failed ambition. The book also inspired the 2011 film, Killing Bono.
The stage adaptation, directed by The Inbetweeners‘ Gordon Anderson, features Niall McNamee as Neil and Shane O’Regan as Bono, along with Niamh Bracken, Denis Conway, Farzana Dua Elahe, Donal Finn and Ciaran Dowd.
The show is produced by Sally Wood for Sally Humphreys Productions, who was last at Soho Theatre in 2012 presenting Zoe Lewis’ one-woman play Touched… Like a Virgin, in which Sadie Frost played an avid, lifelong Madonna fan. (Sally is also the wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, so knows a thing or two about rock stars herself!)
Terri Paddock founded WhatsOnStage.com and the WhatsOnStage Awards, running the company and its events from 1996 to 2013. Terri is also the author of two novels, Come Clean and Beware the Dwarfs, and has previously written for the Evening Standard, Independent, The Times and other national publications. She is renowned for her 'legendary' post-show Q&As and also produces the annual Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and acts as a digital, content strategy and event consultant for theatre, producers and other clients. She tweets about theatre at @TerriPaddock.
