Life
?- [Sarah ‘Marie’ Jones]; b. Belfast; co-fnd. Charabanc Company
with Carol Scanlon Moore and Eleanor Methven, 1983; emerged as the writer
of the group, the others conducting the research for her pen; her first
play, assisted by Martin Lynch and director Pam Brighton, Lay Up Your
Ends (1983), tells a story of women in linen industry in the 1930s;
also with Charabanc, Oul' Delf and False Teeth (1984); Now You’re
Talking (1985); Gold on the Streets (1986); Girls in the
Big Picture (1987); Somewhere Over the Balcony (1988), based
on researches in Divis Flats; and The Hamster Wheel (1990), dealing
with the mental illness of Norman, and its impact on his family; also
with Charabanc, Wedding’s Wee’ins and Wakes, commissioned
by the BBC, toured Belfast community centres, 1990; also a TV version;
moved on to work by commission for Replay, a Belfast theatre-in-education
company, 1990, writing Under Napoleon’s Nose and It’s
a Waste of Time, Tracy; three television dramas for BBC ‘Lifeschool’;
adaptation of Gogol’s The Government Inspector (1994) toured
Ireland and played at Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn; A Night in November
(Tricycle Theatre 1994); Women on the Verge of HRT (1996); Ethel
Workman is Innocent, playing at Chelsea Centre Theatre Company, dir.
Francis Alexander, designed by Tim Shortall (6 June-1 July 1995; DubbelJoint
Prods. premiered Stones in His Pockets, opened 7 Aug. Whiterock
Buildings, West Belfast Festival, 1996, and went on to play with designs
by Robert Ballagh at the Dublin Theatre Festival, Oct. 1997 (Tivoli Theatre),
before transferring to London and New York; works chiefly unpublished
incl. A Night to Remember (NY Irish Centre Feb. 1998), a play about prejudice in Northern Ireland society and World-Cup soccer enthusiasm; enjoyed huge success
with Stone in his Pockets (2000), a two-man play about despair and suicide
in young men.
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Works
The Hamster Wheel, printed in David Grant, The Crack in the
Emerald, New Irish Plays (Nick Hern Books [orig. 1990] 1994); extract
from Lay Up Your Ends, in Ruth Hooley, ed., The Female Line,
Northern Irish Women Writers (NI Women’s Rights Movt. 1985);
Stones in His Pockets with A Night In November (London:
Nick Hern Books 2001), 108pp.
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Criticism
Anthony Roche, ‘Northern Irish Drama: Imaging Alternatives’,
in Contemporary Irish Drama From Beckett to McGuinness (Dublin:
Gill & Macmillan 1995), pp.216-78, espec. pp.241f.
Brian Fallon, notice of ‘The Hamster Wheel’, in David Grant, sel. & intro., The Crack in the Emerald: New Irish Plays [1994], in Irish Times, 14 Jan. 1995 [‘tragicomic Belfast wit’].
Elaine Lafferty, ‘Broadway in their Pockets’, The Irish Times, 26 May 2001 [Magazine], pp.22-24.
Imelda Foley, The Girls in the Big Picture: Gender in Contemporary Ulster Theatre (Belfast: Blackstaff 2003), 186pp.
Patrick Burke, reviewing David Grant, ed., The Crack in the
Emerald [2nd edn.] (Hern Books 1994), in ILS, Spring 1996
Lawrence Van Gelder, review of A Night to Remember, NY Times 28 Feb. 1998, in NY Times review at <http://wWw.nytimes.com/library/ theater/>.)
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Anthologies, Katie Donovan, A. N. Jeffares, and Brendan Kennelly, eds., Ireland’s Women (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1994); Ferocious Irish Women (1991), cites also among toured plays, Weddin’s, Weedins, and Wakes; also Under Napoleon’s Nose; It’s a Waste of Time, Tracy, for the Replay Th. co., Belfast; and three television plays for BBC ‘Life School’; extract from The Hamster Wheel, printed in Nick Hern, ed., (1990).
Stepping in: Marie Jones steps in to play part in Pam Brighton’s Just a Prisoner’s Wife, in Féile an Phobail played
at Whiterock Buildings during the Belfast West Festival, 1996; Stones
in His Pockets opened on 7 Aug. at the same venue.
Arts Link: Cultural Events in N. Ireland (NI Arts Council release, Sept. 1996) lists Marie Jones, Stones in His Pockets, produced by DubbelJoint with Conleth Hill and Tim Murphy (‘brilliant double act’ - Irish news) touring N. Ireland centres after acclaimed opening in West Belfast Festival.
Stones in His Pockets wins Evening Standard Award for Best West End Comedy; satire revealing trials of small Kerry town when Hollywood film-crew arrive to make blockbuster; played in London by Sean Campion and Conleth Hill, taking on 15 roles; reached Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn (March 1999); moved to Duke of York's, West End (to 28 April , 2001); scheduled to open with same actors at Golden Theatre, Broadway (1 April 2001); screen adaption under preparation by Ben Hopkins. (See Irish Emigrant Arts Review, Dec. 2000).
Tony Award: Sean Campion & Conleth Hill received the Tony Award (US) after two years successful touring of Marie Jones’s Stones in His Pockets (see Elaine Lafferty, ‘Broadway in their Pockets’, The Irish Times, 26 May 2001 [Magazine], pp.22-24).
A Night to Remember, revived at Andrews Lane Theatre (Aug. 2004), directed by Terry Byrne with Gavin Armstrong in the monologue-role.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)