The cast of the stage musical American Idiot, which is based on the Green Day album of the same name, have said that the show is now more relevant than ever.
Now in its tenth year, the punk rock musical, currently running at Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre, is set in the fictional city of Jingletown and tells the visceral story of a group of disaffected young men and women who become involved in drugs, violence and drink in the paranoiac aftermath of the 9/11 attacks of 2001.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Waterloo Road actor Tom Milner, who plays the lead character Johnny in the show, said, "The album was written in reaction to 9/11 and so many years down the line we’re still dealing with terrorism unfortunately."
"That title relate to a certain someone," says Luke Friend, who plays St. Jimmy in the show.
"We’ve just come back from New York and you daren’t say anything because it’s half and half over there," says Milner. "Half of the people love him and the other half can’t stand him. I'm talking about Trump, by the way."
Speaking about his character, Milner said: "Johnny doesn’t really have any motivation. He’s brought up in a certain part of town and he’s got his last bit of money and he decides to get out of that town with his two mates.
"One mate stays at home, the other goes with him but lets him down so he’s out in this world on his own. Johnny is one of those people you meet in life who never says not to anything.
"Anything that comes his way, he just takes it and deals with the consequences later. He falls off the bandwagon quite hard."
"I’m the spanner in the works," says Luke Friend, who was a third place runner-up on X Factor in 2013, about his character St. Jimmy. "I’m the crazy, sadistic, evil one but also the party animal. I’m the one who gets Johnny into the drug world. I’m the catalyst for all this happening, I’m the catalyst for these two having a very butchered relationship."
"St. Jimmy is in Johnny’s head. He’s the classic devil on the shoulder making him do bad things."
2016 X Factor finalist Sam Lavery, who plays Johnny’s love interest Whatshername, says that her favourite song to perform on the show is Letter Bomb.
"It’s when all the girls come on and we just have a really big moment. We are all so angry and it is such a strong powerful moment. It is such an energetic show and the music carries you. It deals with some pretty intense things."
American Idiot is at the Gaiety Theatre now until Saturday, March 23
