Play on Words Festival 2005
In May 2006, The Mushroom Pickers, by Jacqueline McCarrick,
was performed to rave reviews in Southwark Playhouse, London. The play
had a three-week run, and the theatre critic of the London Evening Standard
awarded the production four stars and wrote “ … All the familiar
ingredients are here: rustic eccentricity, colloquial lyricism, the Troubles.
Yet fine performances and a subtle handling of the shades of morality
lift this above the ordinary.”
This play was one of 71 new plays from authors in nine countries that
entered the SCDA Play on Words Full-length play competition last year.
And with the prize money of £1000 going to the winner, it was a
fiercely contested competition. A panel of informed SCDA personnel read
the plays, and a short leet of twelve plays was sent to a professional
judge whose choice was Jacqueline McCarrick’s play. Some Kind of
Hell, by Tain’s Peter Whiteley was given second place and prize money
of £500.
