“It’s gone a ridiculous country altogether. If it keeps goin the way it’s goin you won’t be able to fart for fear the guards’ll lock ya up for makin noise”
When Micheal Martin, Ireland’s Minister for Health introduced a ban on smoking in public places in March 2004 he started a debate that turned father against son and brother against brother. In pubs all over the country non smokers cheered in the new clean air legislation and shouted their approval as marginalized smokers were forced onto the street or into hastily built lean-tos. Smokers in turn rounded on non smokers and legislators, predicting an end to the pub culture of the country and vilifying “nanny state” politics.
Scandal knows no bounds as seven women gossip intermittently in the smoking room of a Dublin pub, leaking personal information as they go. As the innocent along with the guilty suffer the stings of innuendo and the lashes of sharp tongues a hilarious tale of a crime and its consequences unfolds.
Mary’s theatre credits include Bogboy (Tall Tales), Boss Gradys Boys (Gaiety Theatre), Off Plan (RAW), Twelve Days In May (Liberty Hall), The Pride Of Parnell Street (Fishamble Theatre Company – Winner Of Best Actress 2009 at The First Irish Theatre Festival in New York and also Best Actress at the MAMCA awards 2008), Noah and The Tower Flower (Fishamble Theatre Company – revival tour to Romania and Bulgaria – Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play). Other productions include Twelve Days in May (Liberty Hall Theatre), Macbecks (Long Road Productions), Howya “a one woman show” and Sister (Visions Productions), Splendour (RAW Theatre Company), Sleeping Beauty and Miss Julie (Landmark Productions), The Alice Trilogy (The Abbey Theatre – Winner of Best Supporting Actress at The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2006), Macbeth (Second Age), Operation Easter and Five Kinds Of Silence (Calypso Productions), Family Stories (B*spoke Theatre Company – Irish Times Best Supporting Actress Award Nominee 2005), Oh When The Hoops (Liberty Productions), Playing Politics (Dublin Theatre Festival), Knocknashee (Tall Tales), The Grapes Of Wrath (Storytellers Theatre Company), Give Us A Break and Shadow Of A Gunman (Tobarnarun) and On Raftery’s Hill (Druid/Royal Court- International Tour)
Her film and television credits include: Situations Vacant, Con Saw Tina Effect, Eamon, El Juego Del Ahorcado, Little White Lie, Blue Soup, Prosperity, Frankie, Bitterness, What If?, King Of Nothing, Adam And Paul, W.C., The Magdalene Sisters, On The Edge, Accelerator, Crushproof, A Great Party, Recoil, The Marriage Of Strongbow and Aoife, The Very Stuff, ER, Fair City, Love Is The Drug, The Big Bow Wow, Ambassador and Random Passage.
Mary has also worked with RTE radio on plays including Lennon’s Guitar, The Sorting Office Of The Universe, Bog Boy, Appearances, Moving Day and Happy Hour. She narrated Can Lilly O’ Shea Come Out To Play for The Book On One.
Other radio drama includes Dublin Tenement Life for Dublin History Museum and The Lost Patriot for Tin Pot Productions. She also performed the role of Freja in the feature length cartoon Thor – The Edda Chronicles for Magma Films.
Mary is a multi award winning singer and the director of Visions Drama School.
