Nature of Event: The Highlands Theatre Group is pleased to announce that it will be 
producing an exciting new play by Irish author Jaki McCarrick, Belfast Girls. This is the first time the play has been produced by an Australian Theatre Company, professional or amateur. For information regarding the origins of the play, here are the author’s own words.
Escaping the Irish famine in 1850 five young women seek passage on a ship to Australia. For many of the ‘orphan girls’ on board, the voyage offers a fresh start. But some girls find they cannot escape the memory of the lives they’ve left behind – and that the closer they get to Australia the more powerful the past becomes.
Characters:
JUDITH NOONE – 20s – Judith is half Jamaican/half Irish, born in Jamaica but having spent most of her life in Jamaica. Judith is the self appointed leader of the girls desperate to escape her past and start afresh in Australia
MOLLY DURCAN – 17/18 – Molly is the youngest of the group, asked to share a room with the other four girls. She was a serving maid to an aristocratic family before falling on hard times. Molly has dark secrets she doesn’t want anyone to know about.
HANNAH GIBNEY – 20s/early 30s – Hannah is the oldest of the group and likes to stir the pot with liberal doses of reality. Like the others she has done things to survive she would rather the others know nothing about, but it seems that almost everyone knows her secrets.
ELLEN CLARKE – 20s – Ellen is a quiet observer who is always up to making jokes at the other girls expense. Her secrets may be the darkest of all.
SARAH JANE WYLIE – 19 – Sarah has the most difficulty leaving Ireland behind. Her brother has already made the journey to Australia and she is expecting to meet him there. The most cynical of the group, she is very guarded about the hope that Judith has urged them all to embrace.
Dates: Friday 18th May 2018 – 8pm; Saturday 19th May 2018 – 8pm; Sunday 20th May 2018 – 2pm; Friday 25th May 2018 – 8pm; Saturday 26th May – 8pm
Venue: Mittagong Playhouse
Further Information: Director – Steven Clancy 0404 045 779; Assistant Director – Brigid Gregg 0418 698 161
Tinteán 