A top Irish journalist has produced a play about his worst nightmare - his home being broken into by a psycho criminal who is bent on revenge.
Jason O’Toole, who is a columnist with the Sunday Mirror, wrote “The Intruder” about a notorious criminal named Old Nick who breaks into a reporter's home.
The gangster has a bone to pick with him over something he wrote but it ends up being a cat and mouse game with devastating consequences.
The play – starring Jason Barry of Titanic and Love/Hate fame, alongside Charlene Gleeson and Rex Ryan and directed by Stephen Jones – goes out online on Thursday.
Dubliner O’Toole, who is based in Spain, said that the play grew out of his worst fears.
Although the play has some strong language the author couldn’t believe his eyes when the work was given a PG classification by online arts ratings agency IMBd.
He said: “The conventional wisdom is to write about what you know but I decided to put pen to paper about what I most feared - a psychopathic criminal breaking into my home in the dead of night because he had a bone to pick with me over an article.
“The F word and C word and B word... are used enough times to get it an X rating so that’s very funny.”
While the play is a work of fiction it came about after his dealings with very real criminals.
He added: “It was certainly inspired by my chats with the likes of John Gilligan, Dutchy Holland, Fat Puss and Christy Dunne for Hot Press Magazine.
“Afterwards, I found myself on the receiving end of a chilling call from a certain gangster.
“He was screaming blue murder because his mother-in-law was in a flood of tears over some home truths I’d dared to utter about him on the airwaves.
“Talk about truth being stranger than fiction! But it certainly got me thinking…
“It only took a dozen years and a virulent disease for me to finally bang out my play, The Intruder.
Featuring a new score by renowned Irish musician Gerry Leonard – famed for his work with David Bowie – it will premiere at 9pm on Thursday night on the Hotpress YouTube channel.
