Bono to be portrayed in new play + McGuinness gives album update

Bono is to cameo – well, sort of! – in a new play that runs in Dublin’s Samuel Beckett Theatre from May 25 to 29.
According to the PR blurb, STRIKE! is “inspired by the famous anti-apartheid shop strike on Henry Street in 1984. It will use visuals and music of the time to tell the story of a group of young people who protested against apartheid and confronted the establishment, caused a state of emergency in South Africa and eventually saw the banning of all South African produce in Ireland.”
Bono, as portrayed by actor John Carey, will be seen helping to record the ‘(I Ain’t Gonna Play) Sun City’ anti-apartheid song, which was the brainchild of Steve Van Zandt. We’ll have more on STRIKE! in an upcoming issue of Hot Press.
As for the real Bono & Co., Paul McGuinness has been updating Rolling Stone on U2’s release plans.
“There certainly won't be an album before June,” he tells them. “However before the end of the year is increasingly likely. What would be really quite interesting would be if some of that material were to be released onstage and on record between now and the fall.”