Vagabonds: My Phil Lynott Odyssey

• David Kettle
• 12 August 2015

This article is from 2015.

credit: David Monteith-Hodge

Powerful if sprawling solo show on the importance of heroes

There’s a lot going on in this energetic, slightly sprawling show from Leviathan’s Goat: hero worship and heroic deeds; bits of rock’n’roll biography; and mixed-race actor Robert Mountford’s own personal cultural confusion as a youngster. It takes a while to meld together into something properly convincing – a lengthy introduction with Mountford as his rock star hero muddies things still further – but when it does click, about halfway through, it turns into a pretty powerful if anarchic piece of work.

Mountford is a passionate, volatile force, and he embodies Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott’s swaggering egocentricity magnificently, lining up the Irish guitar hero alongside his own rebellious older brother David as heroes to a wide-eyed 11-year-old – who only later discovers the ultimate price of a life of free-spirited excess.

Co-writers Mountford and Chris Larner (Fringe First winner in 2011 for his very different An Instinct for Kindness) leave their structure a bit on the ragged side – although that feels fitting for a show that touches on sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. But what binds things together and propels the show along is Mountford’s charismatic conviction.

ZOO, 662 6892, until 31 Aug (not 19), 9.10pm, £7.50–£10 (£6.50–£9).