Belfast Girls
By Jaki McCarrick
Directed by Svetlana Dimcovic
Escaping the Irish famine in 1850 five young women seek passage on a ship to Australia. For many of the ‘orphan girls’ on board, the voyage offers a fresh start. But some girls find they cannot easily escape the memory of their past lives ...
Belfast Girls is a world premiere of the newest play from award winning Irish playwright Jaki McCarrick, directed by fellow National Theatre Studio graduate and long-term collaborator, Svetlana Dimcovic.
Cast includes Victoria Armstrong, Martha Barnett, Chereen Buckley, Angela Costello & Amy Molloy.
Belfast Girls is the second production in The King’s Head Theatre’s new writing season Without Décor. Theatre company Good Night Out Presents continues its mission to bring new work to London stages by producing Without Décor led by Artistic Director Adam Spreadbury-Maher & Associate Director Hamish MacDougal. Inspired by the Royal Court Sunday night performances in the 1960s, that provided a first platform for writers such as Edward Bond and Arnold Wesker, Without Décor provides a vital platform for new writers; allowing them to develop their work in a fully staged production with actors off book but no set.
“This is where the writers’ theatre that everyone talks about is really happening”
(Mark Ravenhill, The Independent)
Monday 1st, 8th, 15th August 10:00pm
Tickets: £7.50
The King’s Head Theatre, 115 Upper Street, London N1 1QN
Book online: http://www.kingsheadtheatre.com/without-decor
Box office: 0207 478 0160
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Sarah Stribley
Associate Producer
OperaUpClose & Good Night Out Presents
OperaUpClose & Good Night Out Presents
London's Little Opera House at the King's Head Theatre
115 Upper Street, London, N1 1QN
Mobile: 07814 703118
Olivier Awards Winner for Best New Opera Production - La Boheme
What's On Stage Awards Winner - Best Off-West End Production for La Boheme
Good Night Out Presents Limited is registered as a company in England and Wales; company number 07060214
Notice of Confidentiality-
COMING SOON....
Don Giovanni @ Soho Theatre Aug 11-Sept 17
KING’S HEAD THEATRE
Manifest Destiny- composed by Keith Burstein, directed by Valentina Ceschi
Carmen- written by Georges Bizet, directed by Rodula Gaitanou
Macbeth- written by Giuseppe Verdi, directed by Daniel Slater
Kvetch- written by Stephen Berkoff, directed by Julio Mario Martino
WWW.KINGSHEADTHEATRE.COM
What actual facts did you find to state that lots of girls offered sexual favors?
ReplyDeleteHear say and exaggeration sell books and tickets, but they dishonor understanding.
No doubt, your first reaction will be the human one to throw some words found in a book or wikipedia.
You like all of humanity in reality have no idea what really went on last week for another human you do not personally know. Let alone 150 years ago.
Even if you could prove the actions of one.
What sort of mind believes this.
‘A lot of women would lie to get on the ship, and perform sexual favours to get their good reference. Which they did, plenty of them did.’
Plenty of them did.
F-
Why did your head want to create that image.
Dear Paddy,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
As someone with three degrees (B.A. Hons, MPhil, PhD) I assure you that I have never in my life used Wikipedia for the purposes of anything other than speculative or random research. I certainly did not go to, nor did I need the assistance of, Wikipedia in the writing of my play.
I spent two years researching BELFAST GIRLS, which I note from your comment you have not yet seen. One of the main sources for me was a doctorate thesis written by Melbourne-based academic, Trevor McCaughlin. McCaughlin brought together many disparate materials including personal letters and accounts, ship registers of all 4,000 of the girls who emigrated, newspaper reports about the girls once they arrived in Australia. I also read and researched numerous accounts of women during the Famine, most of which were academic books - or primary sources.
To help with your obviously scant knowledge of this period I refer you to my authors note at the beginning of BELFAST GIRLS:
Author’s Note
Between the years 1848 and 1851 over four thousand Irish females took passage on ships from Ireland to Australia under the Orphan Emigration Scheme established by Earl Grey. This action had the effect of relieving many of the workhouses and poorhouses of Ireland already full to the brim with people seeking respite from the ravages of the ‘Great Famine’ and of providing ‘new blood’ for the Colonies – wives, servants, farm-workers. The women who left were more generally known as ‘orphan girls’ – though many were neither orphans or, strictly speaking, girls. The most notorious and riotous amongst these – both in transit and on arrival in Australia – were known as the Belfast Girls.
‘the Belfast girls…were notoriously bad in every sense of the word…violent and disorderly, obscene and profane…many of them prostitutes…and not orphans at all…’
Trevor McCaughlin, Barefoot and Pregnant? Irish Famine Orphans in Australia.
I also refer you to a link (now on the internet, though this was not available when I first researched this subject) - the facts here also come from McCaughlin’s account:
http://www.thenoones.id.au/06_FEMIGRATE/femme.html
Unfortunately, there have been many dark areas of Ireland’s past that people refuse to - or do not want to - believe. That does not mean they did not happen.
Yours sincerely,
Jaki McCarrick