Consumed at Park Theatre

As the winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2022, Karis Kelly’s play lives up to its reputation. We’re transported to the heart of Northern Ireland, where Eileen (Julia Dearden) prepares for her 90^th birthday, party hat and boxes of Quality Street at the ready. Her daughter, Gilly (Andrea Irvine), bustles through the door carrying several shopping bags, eager to crack on with the preparations. The family home setting is brought to life with coats spilling from the hangers in the corridor, bubbling pans on the stove and potato skins scattered across the floor from Gilly’s cooking.

When Gilly’s daughter Jenny (Caoimhe Farren) arrives from London with her own daughter, Muireann (Muireann Ní Fhaogáin), the tone starts to shift from celebratory to confrontational. Jenny hasn’t visited her mother or grandmother in three years and sidesteps questions about her partner back in London. The conversation ticks along as tensions quietly build, with Muireann revealing a list of new food intolerances, prompting confusion and eye rolls from Gilly and Eileen. “Do you have oat milk?” she asks, anxiously.

As the play goes on, the generational differences, how each woman handles conflict, expresses or suppresses emotion and interprets her own experiences all come sharply into focus. Andrea Irvine gives a beautifully nuanced performance as Gilly, presenting a woman who smiles through hardship but lashes out in moments of strain. Her resentment towards her circumstances and her fractured relationship with her daughter, Jenny, simmers just beneath the surface. Julia Dearden’s Eileen is tough, blunt and often hilarious, yet perhaps the most emotionally repressed of them all. As the play draws to a close, she begins to confront the roots of her emotional detachment, finally coming to terms with how deeply her past has shaped her behaviour. Jenny and Muireann’s relationship is also influenced by the charged atmosphere – starting out as seemingly warm, understanding and open, it slowly unravels to expose underlying stresses and unexpressed truths between them.

Katie Posner’s sharp direction keeps the action moving fluidly, ensuring the dialogue never loses energy while allowing the emotional undercurrents to bubble over at just the right moments. The play’s exploration of generational trauma is smartly handled and never feels overbearing. One slight exception is Muireann, whose overtly activist, therapy-inspired Gen Z perspective can feel somewhat exaggerated and cliché at times. Still, the themes unfold organically, culminating in a series of surprising revelations and an unexpected stylistic shift that leaves a lasting impression.

Chloe Vilarrubi
Photos: Helen Murray

Consumed is at Park Theatre from 18^th March until 18^th April 2026. For further information or to book, visit the theatre’s website here.