Pig Tales, 2002. McNamara gained a commission through
Ovalhouse and
Jacksons Lane for the Xposure Festival of Disability Arts. She teamed up with Jessica Higgs, Director of In Tandem theatre company. Pig Tales is composed of five short vignettes based on the nursery rhyme 'This little piggy went to market'. Pig, the central character, is a female child raised as a boy. Pig's warring Liverpool Irish family are haunted by the rigid teachings of the Catholic church. Disappointed with their peers and dislocated from their roots, the family implodes. Pig reflects on the chaos and confusion of an adolescence set against the brutality of the Mental Health System. The production was chosen as 'Critics Choice' in
The Times, touring both nationally and internationally. Pig's Sister, also written and performed by McNamara and directed by Jessica Higgs, was created in association with
Theatre Workshop Scotland, launched at
The Poor School in London before transferring to
Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2005. Julie McNamara went on to direct the play herself, casting two men in the roles of Pig and Sissy. Pig was played by Adrian Wilkes and Sissy by Michael McNamara for DaDa Festival, Liverpool 2006. Steak and Chelsea Out to Lunch, was first commissioned by No Strings Attached Theatre in partnership with
Feast Festival Adelaide (2008) Crossings (2008 -2010) was first commissioned by DaDa Festival in 2008. Originally directed by
Karena Johnson, it was re-directed by
Paulette Randall and toured extensively throughout UK, closing at the
Grand Opera House, Belfast. The production was featured on Ulster television
UTV,
BBC Radio 4 and attracted a Writer's Award through
DaDaFest and
ITV. The Knitting Circle (2010 - 2013) Directed first by Antoinette Lester and then by
Paulette Randall. It was written from authentic survivor testimony. The production painted a picture of the lives of women who lived in the old asylums of Britain's long care system. Set within a fictional institution in the 1980s called Harper Park, the patients face the worst aspects of
Margaret Thatcher's 'Community Care' or
care in the community scheme in the 1980s. The idea for the production was inspired by an old recording made 30 years ago, when McNamara was working as a nursing assistant in a long-stay hospital in the Hertfordshire. The cassette contained the voices of female patients she had lived and worked with, all telling their personal stories. Whisper Me Happy Ever After (2014) Inclusive theatre company Face Front commissioned McNamara to write Whisper Me Happy Ever After. The play is written from the testimonies of children between 9 – 12 years who have lived with violence in the home. The play makes a strong call out for new ways of dealing with domestic violence and ways to reach young people affected. The story is developed through research with young people and parents who've survived domestic or gang violence, and with teachers, mental health experts, the police, domestic violence forums and support groups. Let Me Stay (2013–2015) McNamara wrote Let Me Stay as a tribute to her mother Shirley, who lives with
Alzheimer's. The play is the result of years of recordings and filming her mother's stories and songs. Shirley McNamara collaborated throughout the creative process. The message of this play is "it is possible to live well with Dementia". McNamara performed in this one woman show under the direction of
Paulette Randall. Let Me Stay launched in October 2013 at Interacting Festival Corban Arts Centre, Auckland. Between 2014 and 2015 the play toured UK, Scotland, Northern Ireland and NE Brazil, closing on 20 June 2015 at Downpatrick, NI. The tour was supported with an award by Unlimited. The Disappearance of Dorothy Lawrence written by McNamara and directed by
Paulette Randall opened on 11 September 2015 at
Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton. The play was based on the life of historical character
Dorothy Lawrence. Her extraordinary story highlights the silencing of women's voices throughout history and the connection with the mental health system as a tool of censorship and repression.
Paulette Randall directs the play which involves a cast of four and includes integrated subtitling,
British Sign Language interpretation and
Audio description. In June 2015 Julie McNamara was commissioned to respond to the collections of medical museums as part of the project Exceptional and Extraordinary: unruly bodies and minds in the medical museum. Other artists commissioned were
Francesca Martinez, David Hevey and Deaf Men Dancing. McNamara's piece was entitled Hold the Hearse! ==Film==