Playhouse, Sheffield – until October 11th 2025
Reviewed by Sharon Farley
4****
Consumed packs a lot into its 70 minute slot, it has more layers than an onion and would be hard pushed to study half of them in depth even if given double the time provided. Four generations assemble around a kitchen table for a special birthday lunch, establishing the battleground for long-standing grudges and buried trauma to burst forth and wreak havoc. As many of the emerging themes are familiar to almost anyone who has had to endure the forced joy of a tense family gathering, much of the subtext can rely on audience understanding of family dynamics for some aspects that remain undiscussed. The well crafted, darkly comic quips are gratefully received to regularly release some of the fast-building tension and remind us we are being entertained.
Unsurprisingly, given this piece earned Karis Kelly (Black Sheep, Hysterical, Hope Street) the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2022, Consumed is likely to stay with you long after the curtain falls. There are multiple themes to deconstruct and the action does not exhaust this potential but leaves much to the viewers’ own interpretations.
The all-Irish cast brilliantly portray the insecurities and self-centred shortcomings of each character under the direction of Katie Posner (Strategic Love Play, Richard, My Richard, Mold Riots): Julia Dearden (The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Cal, The Fall), as Eileen Gillespie, plays the hardened, nationalistic, 90-year-old matriarch – whose birthday is being celebrated – to a T, delivering her cynicism, cruelty, and favouritism with the solid grit typical of those who have had to bury their trauma and fears deep just to be able to go on. She sits at the far end of the political spectrum from her Gen Z great-granddaughter, Muirreann (Muireann Ní Fhaogáin – 3 Winters, Chain, Hamlet), with her stereotypical gluten intolerance and anxieties over all the injustices of the world. Ní Fhaogáin underpins the role with the perfectly exaggerated teenage angst and outrage familiar on any social media platform. The distance between these two is palpable, right up until their indelible bond is brought into sharp focus during the play’s dramatic finale. Muirreann’s mother, Jenny O’Shea, played by Caoimhe Farren (The Ferryman, Willow, Derry Girls) demonstrates a
frustrating relationship with her mother, Gilly Gillespie (Andrea Irvine – Agreement, Dead Shot, Blue Lights) who does her best to keep calm and carry on despite guarding the dark secret at the heart of the play.
As intergenerational friction collides with intergenerational trauma, coping mechanisms abound but cannot contain the explosive mayhem that inevitably unfolds. To say the action becomes intense would be to severely understate it. There are good reasons for the trigger warnings as many difficult topics are unearthed. Consumed will shake you up as much as it makes you laugh, and provide much to discuss when you leave, once the stunned silence has subsided that is. This powerful piece is currently touring and is deserving of its well-earned accolades.