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Muireann Ní Fhaogáin as, Andrea Irvine as Gilly, Julia Dearden as Eileen and Caoimhe Farren as Jenny Picture: Pamela Raith Consumed Coventry Belgrade ***** This is a fascinating play where four generations of remarkable women bring to life the long shadows of northern Ireland. It is granny Eileen's 90th birthday and she has been promised a birthday party of pleasant surprises. Set in the kitchen of her daughter Gilly (Andrea Irvine), It doesn't entirely work out like that. A potential pleasant surprise, after an absence of three years, is the arrival of Eileen's granddaughter Jennifer (Caoimhe Farren), Gilly's daughter, with her great grandaughter 14-year-old Muireann (Muireann Ní Fhaogáin in her professional debut). There are clearly tensions! I love understatement... It would be a mistake to see granny Eileen (Julia Dearden) as a pink and fluffy woman, or one whose marbles are adrift. No, she 's sharp as a tack, swears like a trouper and constantly hurls abuse at her manic daughter as she prepares the lunch party. They are in Bangor, northern Ireland, and the topics at the table include the wounds of the hungry 40s, the troubles and current issues. Granny is a proud Ulster Scot watching the rise of the resented Catholic population. Granny has a long memory, a devastating sense of humour and, as matriach, runs the family with rigour. Gradually, as the drama unfolds, it becomes clear that the three intervening years have not been kind. Secrets of all sorts creep into the conversation. There are good reasons for the secrecy surrounding the absence of men, one extremely shocking, that bring together the oldest and youngest in attempting to assuage the past...the biggest and most tragic secret from the past granny and Muireann have to reveal, confront and successfully sort. The play concludes in a raging thunder storm, a power cut with the house in darkness, when daughter brings in the cake with 90 candles, singing Happy Birthday together ...I couldn't help thinking it was a very British response to the horrors just revealed. Granny Eileen would have hated that... This is, for good reason, a prize-winning play from Karis Kelly that manages to be both wide- ranging and personal, by focussing on the how one family has changed to suit a fast-changing world. Directed by Katie Posner, the birthday celebration will continue to 06-09-25 Jane Howard 04-09-25 |
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