Jaki McCarrick’s Belfast Girls will make its New York premiere at Irish Repertory Theatre. Previews begin May 11 with opening night set for May 19. The limited engagement will run through June 26 on the Francis J. Greenburger Mainstage Off-Broadway.
The work follows five young women setting out on their own as they sail from Belfast, Ireland to Sydney, Australia in 1850, as they realize they cannot escape the lives they think they are leaving behind. Developed at the National Theatre Studio in London in 2012, productions have previously been mounted in Chicago, Portland, and Pittsburgh. Nicola Murphy will direct, with cast and additional creative team to be announced at a later date.
For tickets and more information, visit IrishRep.org.
Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction.
She won the 2010 Papatango New Writing Prize for her play LEOPOLDVILLE, and her play BELFAST GIRLS, developed at the National Theatre London, was shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the 2014 BBC Tony Doyle Award. BELFAST GIRLS premiered in Chicago in May 2015 to much critical acclaim (Windy City Times Critics’ Pick) and has since been staged widely internationally, with recent premieres in Australia and Sweden. In 2016, Jaki was selected for Screen Ireland’s Talent Development Initiative and has recently completed the screen adaptation of BELFAST GIRLS. Her play THE NATURALISTS premiered in 2018 in New York to rave reviews: “Impeccable, a gift to its actors” New York Times; “Beautifully performed” The New Yorker.