Award-winning pitch-black comedy comes to our Courtyard Theatre in September

7 Aug 2025

Four generations of Northern Irish women reunited under one roof in a house full of hungry ghosts with more than one skeleton in the closet. What could possibly go wrong?

Consumed, which comes to our Courtyard Theatre from 10-13 September, is a pitch-black, twisted comedy of dysfunctional family dynamics, generational revolt and national boundaries by Karis Kelly, winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2022.

Playwright Karis Kelly said: “Consumed starts as a domestic, kitchen-sink drama, transforming itself into a surreal piece of magical realism. Eileen, Gilly, Jenny and Muireann are reunited for Eileen’s 90th birthday party in the family home in Bangor, Northern Ireland. Through the reunion of these four women across four generations, the story explores the divisions within families, the trauma passed down through the generations in the North of Ireland, as well as attitudes towards violence and mental health.”

A Paines Plough, Belgrade Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and Women’s Prize for Playwriting production, in association with the Lyric Belfast, Consumed is directed by Paines Plough’s Joint Artistic Director Katie Posner. The cast includes Julia Dearden (Derry Girls; After Life; Dancing at Lughnasa), Caoimhe Farren (The Ferryman; Derry Girls), Andrea Irvine (Blue Lights; Line of Duty) and Muireann Ní Fhaogáin, who is making her professional stage debut.

Joining them in the creative team are Lily Arnold as Set and Costume Designer, Beth Duke as Sound Designer and Composer, Guy Hoare as Lighting Designer, Suzanne Bell as Dramaturg, Gina Donnelly as Assistant Director, and Jacob Sparrow as the Casting Director.

Kelly commented: “I am absolutely delighted to be working with such an incredible creative team. For me, to be working with a full Irish cast, rehearsing at the London Irish Centre (where I attended many cultural events growing up) is a full circle, dream come true moment.”

Director Katie Posner added: “From the first moment I read it for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting, Consumed gripped me completely. As the family reunion unravels, the story peels back the wallpaper to reveal the tensions between four generations of northern Irish women, speaking to the silences and secrets passed through them all. Karis invites us into a world that feels disturbingly, viscerally, hilariously familiar – especially to anyone who’s been shushed at a family dinner!”

Cast bios

This is Julia’s first job with Paines Plough.

Theatre includes: Camille, Dancing at Lughnasa (West End); The Winter’s Tale, The Crucible (RSC); The Shaughraun (National Theatre); Electra (Old Vic); Cyprus Avenue, Loyal Women (Royal Court); The Silver Tassie (Almeida); Bloody Sunday Inquiry, Una Pooka (Tricycle); Much Ado About Nothing (Sheffield Crucible); Shadow of a Gunman (Citizens Theatre); Bold Girls (7:84 Theatre Company); Blind Fiddler (Assembly Rooms); The Importance of Being Ernest, Da, Scenes From The Big Picture (Lyric Belfast); Ruby, Pentecost (Tinderbox).

Screen includes: Derry Girls, After Life, The Alienist, Line of Duty, The Fall, Frankenstein Chronicles, Cal, Titanic Town. Julia has worked extensively in Radio Drama.

Theatre includes: The Ferryman (West End), Yerma (Tinderbox, Belfast), This Sh*t Happens all the Time (Lyric Theatre, Belfast), Scenes from an Inquiry (The Playhouse, Derry), Chemistry (Finborough), V.E. (King’s Head Theatre),
Confidence/Supply, Carnivores, Girls & Dolls (Southwark Playhouse), EleXion (Theatre 503), Growth (Old Red Lion), The Commissioners (Company of Angels), Dancing at Lughnasa (Ireland tour), Snow White: The Remix (The Playhouse, Derry).

Television includes: Derry Girls, Blue Lights, Crá, The Woman in the Wall, Willow, This Way Up, Hope Street, Doctors.

Caoimhe’s debut play, Hello Charlie, was shortlisted for The Women’s Prize
for Playwriting 2023.

Andrea has worked extensively in Irish theatre, film and television for over 3 decades.

Theatre includes: Agreement (Lyric Theatre Belfast, Irish Art Centre NY, Gate Theatre Dublin); Sadie (Lyric Theatre); Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre Dublin, Royal Court, Public Theatre NY)); Sive (Druid Theatre); Terminus ( Abbey Theatre Dublin, Edinburgh Fringe Festival).

Television includes: Blue Lights; Line of Duty; Call the Midwife; Red Rock.

Film includes: No Ordinary Heist; Peat; Baltimore; The Teacher; Dead Shot; End of Sentence; Five Minutes of Heaven.

Muireann is a native Dublin actress. She has just graduated from the BA Professional Acting Course at LAMDA and will be making her professional stage debut in Consumed.

While training, Muireann has performed in Alice Birch’s BLANK, 3 Winters by Tena Stivičić, Sucker Punch by Roy Williams, Saint George and the Dragon by Rory Mullarkey, and played ‘Hamlet’ in Hamlet.

About the Writer & Director

Karis Kelly is an award-winning Northern Irish playwright and screenwriter. In 2022, they were the recipient of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and Film4 Playwright’s Scheme Bursary, joining The Lyric, Belfast as their writer-in-residence.

In 2024 Karis was chosen to be a part of the inaugural Women in Theatre Lab UK.

They currently have an original drama series in development with World Productions.

For the screen: Hope Street – various episodes, (Longstory TV, BBC Northern Ireland, Britbox) Period Piece (Underwire Film Festival, Vancouver Women In Film Festival, Cineffable – Paris Lesbian & Feminist Film Festival), The Break (BBC Three and BBC Northern Ireland).

Katie Posner joined Paines Plough as Joint Artistic Director with Charlotte Bennett in
August 2019.

For Paines Plough, Katie has most recently directed Shanghai Dolls by Amy Ng (Kiln Theatre); Fringe First award winning play Strategic Love Play by Miriam Battye; You
Bury Me by Ahlam (winner of the Women’s Prize for Playwriting) at Bristol Old Vic, Edinburgh Lyceum and the Orange Tree; Hungry by Chris Bush (Soho Theatre/Roundabout Edinburgh); Really Big and Really Loud by Phoee Eclair-Powell and Black Love by Chinonyerem Odimba (Co-Director for Roundabout).