Yvonne Arnaud – until 20th September 2025
Reviewed by Heather Chalkley
5*****
Award winning playwright Karis Kelly slowly builds drama into this dark comedy, finishing with a grand reveal to tingle anybody’s spine. This is a nightmare not a party!
Four generations of Northern Irish women come together for a 90th birthday gathering no one really wants! Julia Dearden (Eileen) provides a deep throated, frank and forthright matriarch, making this very clear, bringing acid comedy to the play from the start. Her blood curdling laugh turns the audience cold. Andrea Irvine (Gilly) captures the hysteria of an oppressed woman with a gut wrenching secret that is trying to play happy families, creating this party for her mother. Her hilarious manic moments can be felt by every woman trying to hold a family together. Jenny (Caoimhe Farren) digs for the truth about her father, consuming vast quantities of wine in the process. Farren (Jenny) is impressive in her ability to glug down the wine, career around the stage and finally completely loose the plot, bringing the performance to a crescendo. The youngest member of the family, Muireann (Muireann Ni Fhaogain) grasps the root cause of the family’s generational repression and her own mental health challenges, connecting with her great grandmother to solve the riddle. Muireann plays her character with youthful honesty and facial expressions that speak a thousand words!
The creative team gives us a well-equipped kitchen that cleverly reflects the course of the play, revealing itself to be not so beautiful in the end. The light and sound effects give an eerie background, providing another level of unease.
This is a genius level play not for the faint hearted and will rock the foundations of any family, especially if you have skeletons in the cupboard!