Call Out: No Magic Pill

Are you an actor with a disability with an interest in making an impact on mainstream Irish theatre – or have you always wanted to act, but never had the opportunity?

Male actors with a physical disability aged 30 and over are invited to audition to play the lead character, Martin, in No Magic Pill, a stage play inspired by the life of activist and wheelchair-user Martin Naughton.

Magic Pill Productions will present an Irish tour of the award-winning show, No Magic Pill by Christian O’Reilly, in November 2024. Auditions will be held by director Raymond Keane, writer and producer Christian O’Reilly and dramaturg and outreach producer Peter Kearns. This will be a high-profile professional production. Those auditioning will ideally have some theatre experience but the producers are also very open to considering candidates who believe they have performance ability. First produced in 2022, and winner of the Audience Choice Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards, this ground-breaking production will begin rehearsals in October before going on tour from 7-23 November to four venues in Ireland; Black Box Theatre in Galway, Backstage Theatre in Longford, glór in Ennis, and The Civic in Tallaght.

In casting actors with a disability, No Magic Pill aims to bring a fresh conversation and disability aesthetic to Irish theatre. Anyone who wishes to be considered to audition should send their CV, or a letter outlining their experience to date, to casting@nomagicpill.ie. The deadline for expressions of interest is Thursday, May 23.

Selected candidates will be invited to attend an audition on Wednesday 5 June at the
Independent Living Movement Ireland office, Carmichael House, North Brunswick
Street, Dublin 7.

No Magic Pill is a ground-breaking play by award-winning playwright Christian O’Reilly.
Inspired by Galway-native and wheelchair-user Martin Naughton, leader of the disability rights
movement in Ireland (who passed away in 2016), the production broke new ground in Irish
theatre in 2022 in its casting of disabled actors. It tells the heartfelt, hilarious, irreverent,
stereotype-shattering story of one man’s anarchic quest for both justice and love.
No Magic Pill is the story of an activist … but it is also a love story. Martin is a man at war with
the Government, with society, but, above all else, with himself – and at this crisis point in his
life, which road will he choose? Will his fight for equality be derailed by dreams of lifelong love
and distant shores?

No Magic Pill is funded by the Arts Council and is presented in association with Independent
Living Movement Ireland, Irish Wheelchair Association and Disability Federation of Ireland.
Magic Pill Productions is supported by Town Hall Theatre, The Civic, glór, Backstage and The Glens Arts Centre.