Bono play focuses on star before he found the fame he was looking for

A new play about Bono is being brought to the stage in London by the writers behind Porridge and The Likely Lads.

 Chasing Bono, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, is adapted from Neil McCormick’s memoir I Was Bono’s Doppelganger. 

The pair wrote the screenplay of Killing Bono, the film adaptation of the book. The play is billed as “a comedy about failed ambition” that “recounts a tale of life-long friendship and rivalry” between the U2 frontman and McCormick, who were friends as teenagers at Mount Temple school in Clontarf, Dublin.
Set in 70s and 80s Dublin, it follows the pair who “share the same ambition to form bands and become global superstars”.
In McCormick’s memoir, he wrote about Paul Hewson changing his name to Bono and forming U2. His own band, Shook Up!, failed to take off and he went on to become a music critic for The Daily Telegraph.
 When I Was Bono’s Doppelganger was published in 2004, Elton John called it “the best book I have ever read about trying to make it in the music business”.
 Killing Bono was released in 2011. Ben Barnes played Neil while Robert Sheehan starred as his brother Ivan, an earlier member of U2.
 In the play, as in the film, McCormick’s character is kidnapped by Danny Machin, “a Dublin gangster” as his friend enjoys global adoration.
 La Frenais and Clement said: “Chasing Bono has elements of some of our previous work. Like Porridge it is set in a captive situation. It’s Irish, like The Commitments, and it’s funny. Unless nobody laughs, in which case it’s a tragedy. It’s about music, aspiration and self-discovery.”

 The production will be directed by Gordon Anderson, who directed episodes of TV series including Shameless. Chasing Bono is at the Soho Theatre from December 6 to January 19.