CloudNine

  Overall, I had a busy 2020. Despite having no shows on (two productions of Belfast Girls and a production of the female version of Leopoldville were all cancelled this year), breaking the pattern for the past five years  of at least two play productions a year , I wrote fairly consistently and read every day. Once again however, as with last year, my reading of contemporary works mostly consisted of books I was asked to review - otherwise I read either classics or not-so-recent contemporary fiction. This is not as a snub to the plethora of brilliant new novels and novelists out there but simply because I have a very long catch-up list and I just happen to be a slow (though careful) reader. I also watched a lot of TV drama and far fewer films than I usually do (mainly due to Covid restrictions impacting the film industry and cinemas). I also reread The Theatre and its Double by Antonin Artaud and the plays of Sarah Kane. I wrote about this for Samuel French during the year ...

In 2019 there were two magnificent productions of BELFAST GIRLS - and a reading of the play in Washington DC. BELFAST GIRLS premiered in August in Australia, at the Q Theatre in Queanbeyan, New SouthWales. Produced by Echo Theatre and directed by Jordan Best, this production did fantastically well and received a number of glowing reviews. I was so sorry to miss it and really hope that Jordan and the cast get to do it again. Here are some shots from this beautiful show: The next production was by the Swedish company, Batalj Scenkonst and this took place in Stockholm in November. This production marks the first production of the play in translation and luckily I was able to attend the opening night. Malin Erikson directed an absolutely stunning cast and I thought this was an incredibly beautiful show. Very physical and visual, with brilliant use of lighting and music. Even though I don't speak or understand Swedish I was completely moved by this show and really ho...

I was very sorry to learn of the death at Christmas of Irish literary critic, Eileen Battersby. A couple of years ago I reviewed her novel “Teethmarks on my Tongue" for a publication that had doubled-up on reviews so my review did not get published. I'm so sad about that as I really liked her novel. It was quiet and beautifully written. Here's my review now, for your interest, published on my blog.               Eileen Battersby                                           TEETHMARKS ON MY TONGUE         395PP. Dalkey Archive Press. UK £13.50             978 1 62897 147 7 “By the dawn of the 20th century, Europe’s liberties were the liberties denied so many Americans, whether racial, ...

The cast of THE NATURALISTS: Michael Mellamphy, Tim Ruddy,  John Keating, Sarah Street In the middle of this year I was contacted by New York’s Pond Theatre Company. I had sent the directors of this group some plays of mine and in the previous year they had staged two readings – Belfast Girls and Leopoldville. They had also staged some scenes from the all-female version of Leopoldville -  a piece I’m still currently working on - and earlier this year read this work back-to-back with the all-male original version. But the play they were contacting me about this summer was an earlier play, The Naturalists – and they wanted to stage the World Premiere in September! Of course I said yes! I wrote The Naturalists in 2009 and it had a staged reading at the Flat Lake Festival in Monaghan in 2010, directed by Padraic McIntyre of Livin’ Dred Theatre Company. That reading went well but because I'd overheard a producer who we’d invited to see the play, someone who m...

Returning from London, where my parents had lived for seventeen years, my family were in Ireland only a couple of years when the bombing of eighteen soldiers took place at Narrow Water, near Warrenpoint, a few miles from where we lived – and where I still live - in Dundalk. I don’t remember this terrible event, which occurred on August 27 th  1979. Most of the press attention at the time went to another IRA atrocity that had taken place on the same day: the bombing of a boat in Mullaghmore, Sligo, which killed its passengers – Earl Mountbatten and two crew members. I do remember  that  event being on the news. The death of the 18 soldiers was pretty much overshadowed at the time by the death of a British royal. It is the Narrow Water atrocity that forms the backdrop to my play,  The Naturalists , which is about to receive its world premiere in New York, presented by the Pond Theatre Company. According to Tim Pat Coogan, the Narrow Wate...

Reviews of BELFAST GIRLS by Jaki McCarrick Samuel French:  https://www.samuelfrench.co.uk/p/58614/belfast-girls Agency News:  h ttp://www.knighthallagency.com/jaki-mccarricks-award-winning-play-belfast-girls-will-be-in-kansas-city-missouri-from-7-29-april/ BELFAST GIRL PORTLAND OREGON, 2017 Dennis Sparks Sparks Reviews by Dennis Sparks 11/20/17 https://dennissparksreviews.blogspot.com/2017/11/belfast-girlscorrib-theatrese-portland.html “McCarrick has written a powerful play of the endurance of the human spirit.” “Whelan has beautifully balanced the wide stage…” “…the whole cast is first-rate, one of the best ensembles I’ve seen!” BroadwayWorld.com by Krista Garver 11/21/17 https://www.broadwayworld.com/portland/article/BWW-Review-Corrib-Theatres-BELFAST-GIRLS-is-Full-of-Fascinating-History-Could-Use-More-Emotion-201711 21 “It's a fascinating history - one I hadn't heard before - and McCarrick'...