Date Reviewed: 17 August 2009
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With Kitty and Damnation, a rollicking yarn with bawdy wenches, comic hi-jinks and tragic mishaps, dramatist Joseph Crilly wants to take “theatre back to the way it was before TV and cinema”. Set in 1829 against a backdrop of social and political upheaval, this is a touching exploration of the passions that drive, destruct and delude the human spirit. At its core is a moving tale of wanting to better oneself against all the odds.

"Morning Idyll and Matinee Idol"

by Chris Bearne for remotegoat on 14/08/09

The pub theatre of today is the direct descendant of the old "penny gaffs" of two hundred years ago, if somewhat less dodgy and boisterous. This must have been a consideration in the writing and staging of this play. It's big and bold enough to engage a large audience in a plush auditorium, but the material and the up-front playing of it feel totally right in Giant Olive's increasingly buzzy space.

Kitty & Damnation

By Joseph Crilly
Review by Howard Loxton (2009)

Irish playwright Joseph Crilly sets his new play at a key point in Irish history just after the Catholic Emancipation Act has been passed in 1829 and opens it in Belfast where he presents it as a still contentious issue. However, although a petition against the Act with its many signatures written on a great length of cloth is an important feature of his plot, this is not a political play.