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Killymuck
Underbelly
Bristo Square
Edinburgh
It’s hard to believe Aoife Lennon didn’t write Killymuck and that she’s not actually called Niamh.
Kat Woods’s mesmerising play begins with Lennon, its sole performer, enacting her birth and ends soon after the death of her father.
Woods’s script, based on her own childhood, careers through life on a council estate built atop a paupers’ graveyard.
We witness toddler and teenage dramas that could happen anywhere but are undeniably inflected with the hallmarks of poverty and sectarianism. And we are asked to ponder quite what it is that lands each one of us in our circumstances at birth and the fallacy of social mobility narratives.
Killymuck reaches crescendos of chaos and tragedy which leave us more enthralled each time. We are permitted the occasional laugh — how else could you cope? — but Niamh’s story is ultimately a deadly serious one.
Documentary-style interludes, performed by Lennon in a somewhat distanced persona, offer useful context but are a little too stilted.
Perhaps this is simply because her in-character performance is such a powerful depiction of injustice and working class life.
Like Tracy Chapman’s debut album, it is gripping and beautiful but refuses to compromise its developed critique.
Until August 27 2018. Box office underbellyedinburgh.co.uk