Vagabonds: My Phil Lynott Odyssey

Vagabonds looks like it’s going to be a story about Thin Lizzy guitarist Phil Lynott. But Robert Mountford’s show—co-written and directed by Chris Larner—leaps around like a rock god after a line too many. Mountford uses Lynott—“a tall black Irish rock star”—as a way into exploring his own cultural identity growing up an adopted “brown white Catholic boy from Birmingham”, and his relationship with his adored older brother.

Mountford does don an afro wig and Irish accent to dip into the highs and lows of the rock star’s career – but even this resists the standard reverential biopic form, as Mountford mostly plays a statue of Lynott on a Dublin street corner. Vagabonds may not be a straight-forward act of hero-worship then, but it’s still about our need for heroes. Mountford even introduces a brazenly barmy Cúchulainn, hero of Irish legend, to further riff on issues of national identity and myth-making.

The show’s structure is as scrappy as it sounds, but Mountford’s performance holds it together. He’s got a comedian’s timing and rock star’s charisma, ricocheting round the stage like a pinball.

Mountford calls out the conventions of journey-of-discovery shows while, ultimately, enjoying tying strands together. He likens the play to a concept album: “you’ve got to bring it home in the last couple of songs”, or it’s just a mess. Vagabonds is messy – but it also has a double-album’s worth of humour and warmth, delivered with real zest. Definitely not just one for the fans.