The action is set entirely in a homely kitchen in Bangor, Northern Ireland where four generations of women are gathering to celebrate the 90th birthday of matriarch Eileen.
She’s played with fierce determination and an abundance of opinion and bigotry by the excellent Julia Dearden. Enthroned at the head of the table she relentlessly criticises and undermines her daughter Gilly (Andrea Irvine).
Gilly is excited to welcome her daughter Jenny and granddaughter Muireann who have travelled from England for the party – but she’s also nurturing a dark secret.
Karis Kelly’s play starts with almost a knowing homage to Mrs Brown’s Boys complete with wisecracking, home-spun philosophy and robust affection.
But, with brilliant pacing, director Kate Posner, allows niggles, tensions and then venom to erupt as long-simmering skeletons rise up from this rich Irish Stew.
Over eighty minutes, the audience is buffeted on an emotional roller-coaster.
Initially there are laughs galore at the quick-witted dialogue. Asked if she wants spuds, Eileen replies “I’m so hungry, I could east the arse of a baby through the bars of a cot.”
Then, infidelities are spat into faces; OCD is revealed then mocked; an eating disorder is seen as no more of a problem than acne on the nose – wells of ignorance are plumbed.
The frightening, sordid, unexpected Big Reveal shocks (I won’t spoil it) and everything changes.
As Gilly the magnificent Andrea Irvine is vulnerable and brave, holding it together but with a terrible thirst (she downs two bottles of red in front of us).
Her idealistic, over-sensitive and permanently angry daughter (a memorable professional debut by Muireann Ní Fhaogáin) is pushed to breaking point.
Their lives have been led against the background of Ulster’s Troubles. Karis Kelly rightly address the question of transgenerational, inherited trauma and how it expresses itself in the personal.
As a piece of well-acted, enthralling theatre, Consumed is fabulous. Whether the right artistic decisions were made in the choice of resolution is a point that would well be discussed over a pint of the Black Stuff.
Consumed runs at Park Theatre, Finsbury park until April 18.
