I returned to Ireland from Chicago last week sure in the knowledge that the American premiere of my play, Belfast Girls, is in the excellent hands of the Artemisia Theatre Company. Julie Proudfoot has handled the play beautifully. With a barebones set she has managed to brilliantly evoke the journey my girls take to Australia in 1850. And the actresses playing the Belfast Girls - well, they are all absolutely outstanding. This production is exactly as I hoped it would be: a powerful ensemble piece with five roles for five amazingly talented young women. When I met the actresses in person I was stunned at how young they actually are and yet the power they bring to those roles really is jaw-dropping. So is Belfast Girls in Chicago a success? Undoubtedly - and I owe this entirely to Julie Proudfoot and her incredible all-female team of actors, designers and technical staff. I am extremely proud of this production.
I was thrilled anyway that Belfast Girls was going to get its American premiere in Chicago. For the city's appetite for the new and cutting-edge is legendary: it gave a start to many plays, such as Ibsen’s Ghosts, when other towns were too timid to premiere them. It is also home to the brilliant Steppenwolf Theatre Company and to one of my favorite writers, Tracy Letts (Killer Joe, August: Osage County) - and is the ex-home of other writers whose work I adore such as David Foster Wallace, Djuna Barnes and Carl Sandburg! It's very much a literary city.
Before the play's opening, Julie Proudfoot, who is Artemisia’s Artistic Director and Founder, said of Belfast Girls ‘this event, this premiere, is so important, not just to Artemisia in advancing its mission, but it’s a great story—one I want Chicago audiences to see and to talk about. Our cast is amazing, and we have more support than we’ve ever had. Belfast Girls is an extraordinary event – one not to be missed.’ Well she was proved right. The reviews for the play have been stunning. Here is a sample:
“Artemisia's introduction
of this award-and-accolade-winning play to audiences on this side of the
Atlantic might be a humble one, but the strength of McCarrick's themes point to
the likelihood of its becoming a popular addition to the regional circuit. Why
wait until that comes to pass, though, when you can see it now? Highly
recommended.”
Mary Shen
Barnidge, The Windy City Times
“The
sense of helplessness is gut-punching and the disturbing aftermath is
heart-wrenching. With minimal
scenery or props to aid in the storytelling, the idea of what we are looking at
still conjures up an unforgettable visual. I get misty imagining what lies
ahead for these pioneering women. Recommended.” Katy Walsh, the Fourth Walsh
"Belfast
Girls is a thought-provoking work of historic fiction and tremendous
imagination. The cast beautifully bands together and jostles through the angry
waters. Highly recommended."
Ruth
Smerling, Theatre World Internet Magazine
“McCarrick
provides all these injustices with human faces…and provides a fine study of
characters and their world. Recommended.” Jacob Davis, The Chicago Critic
“Jaki McCarrick’s stirring tale of survival and ultimate friendship..directed with assurance by Julie Proudfoot. The action is brisk and thoughtful, made claustrophobic by the small cabin of the ship in which the ladies live. Recommended.” Colin Douglas, Chicago Theatre Review
“The
history of the women is slowly revealed leading to an exciting climax.
Will everyone survive the three month journey? See the Belfast Girls now and
find out!” Quinn
Delaney, Playlist HQ Chicago
The play arrived in the US with a number of accolades. It was shortlisted for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC 2014 Tony Doyle Award, and won the 2012 Galway Stage Write Play Competition. It had its first outing in late 2011 as part of the Without Décor series of plays at the Kings Head Theatre in London and was further developed at the National Theatre where I was ‘on attachment’ with the play’s director, Svetlana Dimcovic, in early 2012.
Jaki McCarrick
To recap: Belfast Girls tells the story of five young women who travel to Australia by ship in 1850 to escape the Irish Famine. They are part of a cargo of two hundred women all traveling to Australia under the Orphan Emigration Scheme – established by Earl Grey (he of the tea). Belfast Girls is also part allegory and compares the laissez-faire policy of Famine times to contemporary light-touch banking regulation. Writing about it for a recent symposium about ‘The Famine and Irish Theatre and Fiction’, Dr Jason King of NUI Galway said, ‘in her play Belfast Girls Jaki McCarrick creates striking parallels between Ireland’s current economic crisis and its most devastating catastrophe.’ While Regina Buccola, Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Languages at Roosevelt University in Chicago, also wrote a remarkable feature about the play, referring to it as ‘a materialist feminist play in the tradition of Caryl Churchill’s Fen’.
To find out more details about Belfast Girls in America as well as new work coming up please follow me on Twitter @jakimccarrick - or/and on Facebook. Text available from Samuel French:
http://www.samuelfrench-london.co.uk/p/58614/belfast-girls
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