Consumed UK & Ireland Tour Review (Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield)

25 September 2025 I 19:00 I Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse, Sheffield

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I PR - Invite

Writing the contemporary play can be a notoriously challenging beast, to immortalise a dialogue on our times. With an acid-tongued cynicism from writer Karis Kelly, Consumed illustrates an ill-wanted reunion for four generations of Northern Irish women to celebrate Eileen's 90th birthday. Emerging with a domestic realism, Katie Posner directs a darkly comic triumph reminiscent of Pinter's absurdist dysfunctional family.

Holding a fierce determinism, Julia Dearden's Eileen anchors this production as the foulmouthed great grandmother, matriarch of the family. Desperate for the perfect (maybe final) birthday lunch, Dearden's no-nonsense attitude and impressive wit results in roars of belly-laughs, her brutally dry delivery enhancing the humour. She is seated centrally for almost the entirety, her family like a solar system that frantically orbit around her.

Photography Credit: Pamela Raith

Andrea Irvine's Gilly is a tremendous counterpart, leaning into her character's hoarding habits to exhaust the space. Her bouts of hysterical laughter are infectious, even when placed in uncomfortable situations, an enthusiasm that disguises something much more sinister.

It can be uncommon to see a naturalistic set in today's theatre-scape, with Lily Arnold's design a far cry from flashy and modernised luxury whilst crammed intimately into Sheffield's Tanya Moiseiwitsch Playhouse. Adorned with peeling wallpaper and a fully functioning washing machine, a site of clutter and ultimately carnage appears so lived-in and believable. This uncanny hyperrealism (complimented by Guy Hoare's eerie flickering lighting) amplifies the absurd within such a 'regular' setting.

Photography Credit: Pamela Raith

Recipient of the Women's Prize for Playwriting, Karis Kelly's script is monumental beyond the comedy to course through histories of Irish violence, gender, Catholicism and generational trauma. The way in which we are haunted by second-hand experiences both societal and personal. Playing alongside Dancing At Lughnasa upstairs in the Crucible Theatre, both represent Northern Irish anxieties for women a near century apart, yet hold an unsettling familiarity to one another.

Through Jenny's confrontational character, Caoimhe Farren excels in an emotionally inquisitive performance, exploring an abrasiveness that develops into a tender outlook on trauma response. Impassioned monologues from Muireann (Muireann Ní Fhaogáin) on environmental justice define her 14-year-old role as the angsty, youngest of the cast. With youth comes vulnerability, as Fhaogáin's overwhelmed reactions to conflict render devastating in such a violent atmosphere.

There is something of a modern classic in Karis Kelly's Consumed, one that holds likeness to the greats of Shepard's Buried Child to Pinter's The Birthday Party. Embracing comedy within the macabre in a rapid 70-minute run time, audiences can be expected to whirl through every one of their emotions in a production unlike anything I have seen before. I urge anyone and everyone to watch Consumed, and I truly hope to see Kelly's play reach the West End in years to follow.

Sheffield tickets and information: https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/events/consumed