“Ultimately, we want Sadie to have her rightful place on our TV screens in Northern Ireland. She is Northern Ireland’s answer to Mrs Brown,” says Tom Rowntree-Finlay (44).
om and his friend Thomas McCorry co-wrote The Belfast Ma: Away Play Around Your Own Door, described as ‘a hilarious comedy based on everyone’s Ma’.
The live theatre show tells the story of a street in Belfast; the people, the secrets, the neighbours, the husbands and the families, as seen from the eyes of Sarah ‘Sadie’ Devine.
“The Belfast Ma is a one-woman comedy show; I say one woman — actually the actor is a man in a wig, but it is definitely a one-woman show,” Tom says.
“It is based around the antics of our main character Sadie Devine who lives on 26 Belfast Street. She is played by Paul Nugent.”
The audience enjoy a big part in the show, playing long-suffering Patricia who has just moved in across the street.
Ultimately the show is all about Sadie telling Patricia all the gossip of the street, about all the neighbours, such as Big Maureen who lives next door, Laura the nurse, Dirty Gerty from number 30, and the local window cleaner Wee Ian.
“Alongside that, there’s The Best Wee Street in Belfast Competition that Sadie had entered. It’s being judged by our local heartthrob, the weatherman, Barry Worst,” he adds.
“I think you just fall in love with Sadie watching her as she does everything she can do to win this competition.
“She’s just a real lovable rogue, she’s your best friend, she’d sell you down the river, and people come away with their jaws sore from laughing.
“‘Away play around your own door’ is a famous saying in Belfast, it’s what your ma shouts to chase the kids who are playing around her door with footballs and making noise, and she’ll come out and shout, ‘right you, away play around your own door’.
“That really inspired us because it’s so Belfast and it’s so your ma.”
Tom and Thomas began writing the script in 2018 and finished it a year later.
“It really came from — we started telling old stories about the antics of our mas, and the more stories that came out, we realised we just have to write a play,” Tom says.
“They are an absolute geg — you know, the ducking and diving, and trying to get everyone on the straight and narrow, and all of that.
“Ultimately what made us write it in 2018 was that Thomas’s mummy passed away in about 2014.
“She was such a huge character, there was never a dull moment with her. If you met her, you never forgot her.
“We were talking a lot about her in and around 2018 and we thought, you know what, our mummies deserve a play. The both of us, our mummies were and are, our idols. So, we were like, come on let’s do this.
“For us, as we’ve written it and as we’ve shared it with people, we’ve realised that actually everyone in Northern Ireland just loves their ma, and a Northern Irish mummy is just so unique. To celebrate her, and her story and her exploits, it’s really special to us.
“What inspired us was we wanted to pay tribute to our own mummies, but also to get people appreciating their mas and having a laugh about the antics they get up to.”
The first performances of The Belfast Ma: Away Play Around Your Own Door took place in December, with plans to go on tour in 2020 — plans that were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For two years we couldn’t really do anything,” Tom recalls.
“We had this play and we knew it was great, because the first 10 performances, people absolutely loved them. In December 2021, we did the second show in our Belfast Ma series in the Balmoral Hotel, which is called Belfast Ma Does Christmas. It went down an absolute storm.
“We said, let’s get Away Play Around Your Own Door on tour again, and we set about getting Sadie back entertaining people right across Northern Ireland. We can’t wait now to take it out in June right across the country.”
The writer has high hopes for The Belfast Ma and is excited to introduce Sadie Devine to a wider audience.
“This is our first time taking it outside of Belfast and we really hope that everyone who comes to see it falls in love with Sadie,” Tom says.
“There’s lots more stories here. We’ve got a few plans for sequels that we’re hoping to write, and we’ve got a new Christmas special that will come out this December and we’ve started to write it already. And oh my goodness, what she gets up to next is an absolute geg.
“Ultimately, we want Sadie to have her rightful place on our TV screens in Northern Ireland. She is Northern Ireland’s answer to Mrs Brown. That’s our ultimate plan, that’s where we’re going, that’s our goal.
“The response so far has been completely overwhelming. What’s been really mad for us, is just how much everyone identifies, and they say, ‘that’s my ma’ or ‘oh my God, I remember my granny did that’. Everyone really relates to it.
“A laugh kills hurt, and people have big smiles leaving the place, thanking us for a good night. After the mad two years we’ve had, everyone needs a good laugh. I have seen the play so many times now, read it and directed it, and I still laugh. There’s something so hilarious about Sadie that you can’t stop laughing at her.”
Tom began writing when he was just 10 years old, plays that he and his sister acted out in the backyard at home.
Now, 34 years on, as a professional script writer, producer, theatre director and acting teacher, Tom has had numerous career highlights to date and Belfast Ma is listed among them.
“It’s a massive ‘thank you’ to my own mummy,” Tom says. “My mum had seven sons and two daughters, alongside that she also was a foster mum at the same time. Our house was full of people and full of kids growing up — kids and us learning how to become adults.
“ Just how much my mum has put into that and put into us, has always amazed me and inspired me. A lot of the stories of the play were based on her and what she did.
“Being a writer, I just love having the opportunity to tell the stories of the people of Northern Ireland and I consider that a real privilege.
“I love our unique humour and our passion, and how proud people are of their stories, I love the fact that I can be part of bringing those stories to people and letting people hear them.”
The Belfast Ma will show across Northern Ireland in June. For information, see thebelfastma.co.uk
