Belfast Girls returns to New York!

“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 Henry Grey. This action had the effect of relieving many of the workhouses and poorhouses of Ireland, and providing ‘new blood’ for the Colonies … 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.” – Jaki McCarrick

Jaki McCarrick’s internationally acclaimed play Belfast Girls, set in 1850 and about five young women who leave Famine-ravaged Ireland for Australia, opens at the Irish Classical Theatre in Buffalo, New York on September 22^nd and runs until October 15^th. It’s directed by award-winning director Kyle LoConti and stars Robyn Baun, Cassie Cameron, Solange Gosselin, Lily Jones, and Renee Landrigan.

Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio and shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Tony Doyle Award and won the Galway Theatre Festival Playwriting Prize. The play has been all over the world, with many productions in the US since it premiered there in 2015. In 2018 it was staged in Australia in two separate production and in 2019 it received it’s first production in translation (Swedish) in Stockholm. In 2022 Belfast Girls received its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre, directed by Nicola Murphy, where it received rave reviews, such as:

“Five wonderful actors…create moving depths of characterization and communication” — Ken Marks, The New Yorker

“extremely powerful… the women represent anyone anywhere attempting to keep a dream awake” – David Finkle, New York Stage Review

“One of the most … considered portraits of the harm Ireland has done to women … that I have ever seen” Irish Central

“Riveting” Theater Mania

Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. Winner of the Papatango Prize for New Writing for her play Leopoldville, Jaki’s play Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio and has been staged many times internationally. Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Tony Doyle Award, Belfast Girls made its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2022. Her play The Naturalists premiered in New York in 2018. Her debut fiction collection The Scattering was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize and includes the Wasafiri Prize-winning story, “The Visit”. In 2020 Jaki was shortlisted for the An Post Book Awards Short Story of the Year Award (Ireland) for ”The Emperor of Russia”. Jaki has written critical pieces for the Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Examiner, Poetry Ireland Review and other publications. She is currently working on a novel and is currently on attachment to the National Theatre London to work on her new play, Sirens.

Details of the show: https://irishclassical.com/belfast-girls/