Written By Karis Kelly

Adapted by Katie Posner

Traverse Theatre

What’s for lunch? Well, nothing better than a warm bowl of generational trauma. Bitter, but addictive.

Winner of the 2022 Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Karis Kelly’s Consumed, now playing at the Traverse Theatre, is a pitch-black comedy that brings four generations of women together under one Northern Irish roof for a 90th birthday party no one seems particularly thrilled about. Directed with slick precision by Katie Posner, this co-production with Paines Plough, Belgrade Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, andthe Women’s Prize for Playwriting is a tightly wound exploration of familial dysfunction, generational trauma, and the ghosts that linger in domestic spaces.

The cast—Julia Dearden (Eileen), Andrea Irvine (Gilly), Caoimhe Farren (Jenny), and Muireann Ní Fhaogáin (Muireann)—deliver sharp, emotionally resonant performances that elevate the script’s biting humour and simmering tension. Dearden’s matriarch is a firebrand with a party hat and a venomous tongue, while Irvine’s Gilly teeters between brittle hospitality and erratic outbursts, near cartoonish, but never too far from reality (we’ve all been there). While Farren brings a grounded complexity to Jenny, the daughter who fled to London and married a Catholic, and Ní Fhaogáin, though playing a role which seems the least dimensional in writing, imbues Muireann with a quiet, watchful intensity that hints at deeper layers.

Kelly’s writing echoes the anarchic energy of Megan Tyler’s Crocodile Fever, particularly in its unapologetic portrayal of women grappling with inherited violence and identity. Like Tyler’s work, Consumed isn’t afraid to lean into the grotesque or the absurd, but Kelly opts for a more naturalistic tone, punctuated by moments of surreal horror and biting wit. Lily Arnold’s set design is a triumph—homely and deceptively warm, with a kitchen that feels lived-in and comforting. But look closer, and the ghoulish secrets begin to emerge: cluttered corners, ominous shadows, and props that seem to whisper of past transgressions. It’s a space that mirrors the play’s themes perfectly—safe on the surface, but haunted underneath.

While the play builds compellingly towards a climax, the conclusion doesn’t fully capitalise on the history of violence it so carefully threads throughout. There’s a sense that something more explosive or revelatory was just out of reach. Muireann, the youngest character, feels underwritten in comparison to her forebears—her motivations and emotional arc remain somewhat opaque. Yet Ní Fhaogáin’s performance ensures she never fades into the background while going toe-to-toe with the rest of the cast, a perfect quartet of foul mouths and gripping emotion.

Morosely funny, Consumed is an emotionally raw piece that balances politics and trauma with domestic chaos. It’s a striking addition to the Traverse’s Festival programme, and a worthy showcase for Kelly’s voice—one that deserves to be heard more widely. While not flawless, it’s a production that lingers, like the smell of birthday cake and secrets.

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