It was a bit of a mad idea. Not perfect by any means. But one that came from the heart. Denis Mulcahy emigrated to the US in 1962 and joined the NYPD. From his side of the Atlantic he formed a different perspective on the conflict in his homeland. And he decided to do something practical about it.

Why not make it possible for some of the Children most affected by the Troubles to get a few weeks’ respite? Children would stay with American families, a holiday of sorts, but also a programme of activities that would intentionally mix them together and try to challenge any toxic views that they held about each other’s different backgrounds.

Project Children started with six children in 1975, then 21, eventually 100, and over 40 years, 23,000 children from Northern Ireland spent six weeks with one of 1,500 host families in the US.

Fionnuala Kennedy’s new play Project Children captures the genesis of the exchanges, with Monica and Sally working as volunteers on the ground persuading school principals to select the most disadvantaged children who wouldn’t otherwise ever get this kind of opportunity. The script captures the experiences – good and bad – of some of the children: bewildered, awestruck, challenged, homesick, occasionally politicised, and usually spoilt rotten overcome with kindness.

It’s never worthy. Even when it gets dark, it always has a laugh around the corner. It balances its sense of theatre with the work of documentary. The writing has the confidence to explore what it was like for children to be questioned about life at home, and to engage with how they filtered their answers depending on who was asking. While it pays tribute to the project’s successful social engineering, it never suggests everything was perfect. (And to be frank, while the scheme made a huge difference to NI children, and inspiring reflections from participants have been filling column inches in newspapers over recent weeks, there are questions to be asked about whether they were sheltered from the conflict that existed and continues to exist in US society. Those aren’t questions or topics the play needed to answer, and the fact that they can float through your head while watching suggests that the on-stage narrative didn’t try to shut down that conversation.)

Project Children is performed in a square covered courtyard at the centre of the recently opened St Comgall’s centre in west Belfast. The natural acoustics are harsh – Phil Coulter wouldn’t have had much need for the sustain pedal on his piano at a recent concert given the natural reverb of the room! – and makes the talented cast really project their voices. Group scenes are interspersed with chunky monologues as children, parents, host families and volunteers share their recollections of the project. Light moments rapidly switch to shade conveying a sense of the children dropping back into the heavy atmosphere of a society and sometimes their families in conflict.

We can see the figurative light go on as children remark upon what is ordinary in their lives back home and realise that their normal is really quite abnormal. Living in America gave Denis Mulcahy perspective, and the cast convey the reality that Project Children did change the perspective of many of its young participants.

The set is based on the Statue of Liberty’s crown with the same 3.5m radius, though the set’s spikes are even larger than the original. There are no wings so the cast rest at the side of the stage before re-entering the fray by walking up the points to the central dais. However, the lack of raked seating means that the back half of the audience can’t see the clever metaphorically rich set design. Effective use of black and white archive footage illustrates different stages of the Troubles.

Among their many roles, James Doran plays Denis Mulcahy while Laura Hughes and Mary Moulds portray two of the Northern Ireland volunteers (Monica Culbert and Sally Brennan). Terence Keeley leaps around like a lad half his age, while Nicky Harley captivates as a thran Derry wan and then sings her heart out. The cast of five all bring enormous exuberance to their roles, as comfortable playing a playground of young children messing around as they are bringing to life parents or some of the older Project Children volunteers. There’s a real Come From Away energy to the piece that grabs the audience and emotionally connects them with the stories being played out on stage.

Director Tony Devlin takes a small cast with a very simple set and creates a production that feels much larger than the sum of its parts. That seems to be a product of Devlin’s vision, Kennedy’s script and the abundant acting talent. Project Children’s run as part of Féile an Phobail continues until Sunday 13 August. It’s well worth catching one of the tickets remaining for the last couple of performances.

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