See the play which gives Teddies the X-factor

ABOUT 25 children turned up with their teddy bears in Dublin’s Smock Alley Theatre recently. They wanted to see if their teddy had the X-factor — was he a team player and willing to muck in and tour Ireland with a play supporting Barnardos?

Gemma Doorly — who played Sarah O’Leary on Fair City — wrote Joe Prop, a full-length play and one-man performance written for Maclean Burke, who plays Dominic in the TV soap.

Joe Prop tells the story of 12-year-old Joe Kavanagh whose illness has left him overweight and a target for bullies. The play is set in his bedroom, far from bullies and illness and where he gets to be the greatest tight head prop in rugby and captain of a winning Irish Rugby World Cup team. The only witness to Joe’s dreams, his confidante and best friend, is a teddy bear known simply as Teddy.