Award nominations for Bruiser Theatre

Bruiser’s production toured venues across Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, to London and was streamed online during the Covid-19 venue closures.

It has been an unprecedented 24 months for the Irish theatre industry, yet great work has still been staged, both online and in-person, despite the odds.

Mojo Mickybo shows the 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.

Lorelei Harris of The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards commented: “The extraordinary circumstances need to be acknowledged from the outset … We are not just celebrating the success or failure of this or that show.

“The very act of [artists] making work at all needs to be celebrated as significant on its own.

“The sheer courage involved, where you had a cohort of theatre practitioners, isolated in the way we were all isolated during the pandemic, continuing with their practice in the service of an audience: it was just remarkable really and we were privileged as an audience to be there.”

Bruiser’s founder and artistic director, Lisa May, has been nominated in the Best Director category.

The company of Mojo Mickybo, Michael Condron and Terence Keeley, have also been nominated in the Best Ensemble category.

This is a major achievement for Bruiser Theatre Company, an independent Belfast-based theatre company committed to showcasing the rich talent and culture of Northern Ireland.

The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards will take place at the Irish Museum of Modern Arts, Kilmainham, Dublin, on on June 12.