Derry Boys at Theatre 503
It takes less than two minutes for Derry Boys to establish that it’s not a riff on Derry Girls. There’s the same fast-paced, self-deprecating humour you’d expect from two Northern Irish teenagers with too much time and too little power, but Niall McCarthy’s debut play doesn’t coast on charm alone.
Mick (Matthew Blaney) and Paddy (Eoin Sweeney), raised in Derry, share both revolutionary fantasies and a deep-seated hatred of all things English. When they reunite in London decades later, they’ve become radically different men. Paddy is now a polished Cambridge law student with a prestigious internship, while Mick is still desperately chasing the ghost of revolution. What begins with teenage stunts and Wild West references spirals into something far darker.
Director Andy McLeod keeps the show taut and relentless; the 90-minute runtime, without an interval, lends the piece the breathless tension of a ticking bomb. Swift transitions, aided by sharp strobe lighting and a stark, minimalist stage design, propel the action across decades without ever losing momentum. Blaney and Sweeney handle these time jumps with ease, entirely convincing as restless teenage boys, and equally compelling as men worn thin by history and difficult choices. The emotional distance between them becomes increasingly palpable, even when they’re standing side by side. On a less successful note, Aoife (Catherine Rees) starts as a sparky, precocious schoolgirl who easily cuts through the boys’ posturing, but in adulthood is disappointingly sidelined, reduced largely to the role of Paddy’s wife and a narrative convenience.
What’s most striking about Derry Boys is its focus not on defining nationalism, but on exploring what it ultimately replaces. The idea that nationalism becomes something to cling to when everything else in life falls apart is powerful, though ultimately underexplored. The repeated appearances of bibles and thematic nods to betrayal, reckoning and debts unpaid cast an ominous shadow over the play’s last moments.
Still, Derry Boys firmly establishes McCarthy as a writer of bold vision and ambition. Though the play feels like an early draft in its experimental phase, it reaches for something deeply poignant: a story of loyalty, betrayal, and the reckoning when childhood debts finally come due.
Christina Yang
Photos: Courtesy of Theatre 503
Derry Boys is at Theatre 503 from 20th May until 7th June 2025. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.
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