By Lesley Walsh
A SELL OUT show set in Bangor infused with ‘in-jokes’ and styled especially for local audiences is set for the Lyric Theatre in the new year.
Karis Kelly’s play, Consumed, is inspired by her life growing up in post conflict Northern Ireland and explores the intergenerational trauma legacy of the Troubles, passed down through four generations of women.
Consumed will be playing in Belfast from February 24 to March 8, following a successful run in England and at the Edinburgh Fringe.
This dark comedy includes a cast of Andrea Irvine, who we know and love from Blue Lights and Line of Duty; Julia Dearden, who featured in Derry Girls, After Life and Dancing at Lughnasa; Caoimhe Farren, who had parts in The Ferryman and Derry Girls, and Muireann Ní Fhaogáin, who makes her professional stage debut in the show.
The action takes place at a 90th birthday party, and what seems like a happy family dinner quickly spirals out of control, with the genre flipping from comedy to near thriller pitch.
Described as a story of dysfunctional family dynamics, generational trauma and national boundaries, the play is ‘about mothers, it’s about love and it’s about food’, says Karis.
Accusations of ‘bad mothering’ are thrown about throughout the dialogue infused with swearing and scenes of violence – warranting the playwright to advise the play is best for audiences of 14 or over.
Karis was speaking to the Spectator from London where she is developing a new play with Neal Street Productions, a company owned by acclaimed British director, Sam Mendes.
London’s influence on the play is essential in establishing the fractures within the women, and confirming the subject matter ‘is very close to home’, Karis said it was inspired by her early years in the city, her parents’ mixed background and the challenges of returning home to Northern Ireland after a lengthy period away.
The playwright said ‘it just had to be set in Bangor’, with both her parents and their families all hailing from the city, and it touches on Northern Ireland’s ‘complicated and nuanced’ society as interpreted through a 14 year-old’s understanding.
“It also looks at what it’s like for a 40 year-old returning home after living in London and how that changes your relationship with the place,” she continues, reaching for her own mother’s experience to elucidate those challenges.
“It’s a high state situation,” Karis expands. “There’s the 90 year-old and it’s all about navigating the different generational views, with the youngest one displaying signs of distorted eating and the difficulties of the generations’ understanding of this.”
Karis comments that ‘while the youngest doesn’t associate being from either side,’ the grandmother meanwhile, ‘is a very strong loyalist’, a view of the world that few people beyond Northern Ireland can fully appreciate.
Those with an insight into the Bangor psyche are among her target audience.
“There’s a bit of a joke that one of the characters with a few airs and graces always says she’s from Ballyholme, even Ballyholme village, but her mother is always correcting her that ‘we’re from Bangor dear’, so it’s very much for a Bangor audience because there will be jokes that Bangor people will especially get.”
Consumed has a plot hinging upon a ‘shocking twist in the middle’, which Karis says she loves to elicit audible ‘gasps’ from her audience.
“It’s a device to talk about Northern Ireland and our reticence to talk about serious and difficult subject matter, when we are more likely to turn away from it and make a joke, and how much that repression impacts on us.
“I always think that one of the best ways to get an audience to interact with serious subject matter is to make them laugh.”
Karis is the winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2022, the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Film4 Playwright’s Scheme, and currently has an original drama series in development with World Productions.
Karis has written for BBC’s Hope Street and has a variety of other local and international writing credits to date.
