CloudNine

We had a marvellous reading of Belfast Girls in Drogheda this week. The cast flew in from London as did our director, Svetlana Dimcovic, and all created a great show in a really great venue. We couldn't have been treated better. Drogheda is blessed with the Droichead Arts Centre. So that's a big THANK YOU to Brian Harten and Marcella Bannon and the board for the National Commemoration for the Famine. Thank you so much for inviting us to read. There may be more news soon on this front of an international nature... Also in the pipeline is the forthcoming release of Strange Passion , a compilation of Irish 80s electronica. My old band, CHOICE, has a track on this new album which will be released in July and launched at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin. I intend to party hard that night. Here's a link to a recent HOTPRESS feature on the album: http://www.hotpress.com/news/8901333.html Some poetry readings in London are in the offing around the launch of the new Ambit...

Belfast Girls 10 May 2012 at Droichead Arts Centre, Stockwell Street, Drogheda, Ireland Jaki McCarrick’s latest play about five young women travelling to Australia in 1850 draws a chilling parallel between the Irish Famine and today’s continuing banking crisis. The story of the so-called ‘orphan girls’ on board, for whom the voyage provides a fresh start – as well as time to come to terms with the disaster they have left behind – is a savage attack on the policy (then and now) of ‘laissez-faire’. Written by award-winning Irish playwright Jaki McCarrick and directed by fellow National Theatre Studio graduate and long-term collaborator, Svetlana Dimcovic, Belfast Girls was staged in August 2011 as part of the Without Décor season of new plays at the King’s Head Theatre, London. It immediately attracted a lot of interest and was developed further at the National Theatre in London in January 2012. The King’s Head nominate...

Next Thursday (May 10th) in Drogheda, as part of the 2012 National Commemoration for the Famine, there will be a reading of my play, Belfast Girls, starring most of the original King's Head cast - though with the wonderful Emma O'Grady reading for Molly. I have yet to do some PR for this so look out for more details.