Theatre review: Stage version of Poor puts the bright side out 

This adaptation of Katriona O'Sullivan's bestselling memoir of poverty and abuse manages to be a feelgood affair 

A scene from Poor, at the Gate Theatre: Mary Murray, Ghaliah Conroy, Aisling O'Mara, Thommas Kane Byrne, Keiren Hamilton-Amos. Picture: Ste Murray

• Poor
• Gate Theatre, Dublin Theatre Festival
• ★★★☆☆

Katriona O’Sullivan touched many hearts with her 2023 memoir, recounting a childhood of abuse and neglect in Coventry and Birmingham, and her ultimate redemption through education after moving to Dublin as a teenager.

As a tale of defiance and success against the odds, it’s inspirational on the page, and it’s that life-affirming tone that Sonya Kelly has chosen for her playful and lively adaptation, directed here by Róisín McBrinn. Certainly, some things are lost in this approach. It’s called Poor, and we are told about poverty, but we don’t really feel it. 

Child rape and parental addiction should make for harrowing viewing, but here, a bright, breezy and ultimately optimistic tone dominates. Even amid the extreme dysfunction and grimness, Aisling O’Mara, as the older Katriona, and Hollie Lawlor, as her younger self, seem ever capable of rising above it all. You don't fear for them.

It’s impossible to begrudge O’Sullivan her self-celebratory story. And, likewise, it’s impossible not to be taken with this eminently likeable production. It’s heart is in the right place.

Hollie Lawlor and Aisling O'Mara in Poor. Picture: Ste Murray

Structurally, Kelly keeps the book very much central to things. Indeed, there’s usually a copy in sight on stage, and scenes are introduced by chapter and page number. The sharing of the space by the child Katriona and her older self is an inspired touch. It’s a reminder that our inner child stays with us, that our past forms us, but also that it does not have to define us.

Hollie Lawlor, who shares the role of the younger Katriona with Pippa Owens during this run, was a revelation on opening night. Like the self-possessed Matilda of Roald Dahl amid the chaos of home, she has an irrepressible brightness that makes her triumph inevitable. Aisling O’Mara, meanwhile, is often the narrator of her own tale. As such, she can feel oddly outside it, but at least delivers that story with a clarity and concision that allows the ensemble scenes to flow with a diverting rapidity.

Thomas Kane Byrne, Mary Murray, Ghaliah Conroy and Keiron Hamilton Amos are called in for the varied and zany crowd scenes, or to play a succession of smaller parts: teachers, dodgy types, drinkers, pals, Trinity students, and so on. They generate plenty of life and laughter as they do so. 

Aidan Kelly and Hilda Fay complete the cast as Katriona’s parents. They are thoroughly believable both as a couple of terrible parents, and in their individual portrayals of flawed people, destroyed but never quite obliterated by addiction.

The Gate can expect the roof to be raised nightly at Poor by happy punters; if you need a feelgood theatrical treat, look no further than here.

• Until November 2