Katriona O’Sullivan: avevo 15 anni, incinta e senzatetto – ora la mia storia di vita è una commedia

Katriona O’Sullivan’s memoir *Poor*, about going from living in poverty with Irish parents in the UK to becoming a successful academic in Ireland, has captivated thousands of readers. Now the bestseller is being turned into a play that will run at the Gate Theatre next month. For O’Sullivan, it’s a chance to open the world of theatre to people who might not feel it’s a place for them.

“I’d been approached a few times for different TV and film adaptations, and I’d said no,” says O’Sullivan backstage at the Gate, fresh-faced and wearing a pink Oasis T-shirt from their recent Croke Park gig. The theatre is in Dublin 1, near the intersection of Parnell Street and O’Connell Street, an area O’Sullivan knows well (she lived nearby and her husband works nearby). “They were very open about privilege and their own privilege, and not necessarily having lived this life, but really wanting to tell these stories,” she says of the Gate. As a theatre lover, being told she’d be heavily involved in the process sealed the deal.

The original plan was to adapt the play (which is presented by the Gate Theatre and Belgrade Theatre in Coventry) as a one-woman show. It has evolved into an ensemble play with Aisling O’Mara playing the adult Katriona and Hollie Lawlor and Pippa Owens playing her younger self. The hardest part was casting O’Sullivan’s parents, Tony and Tilly, who experienced drug addiction: “I feel so protective of them, and protective that the people who play them understand the complexities of their characters.” Hilda Fay and Aidan Kelly were the “perfect” choices. The playwright Sonya Kelly (*The Wheelchair on My Face*, *Smother*) adapted the book and the director is Róisín McBrinn.

“Sonya was just beyond what I could have hoped for for my story — because of her integrity as a playwright but also because of her capabilities visually to bring something to life,” O’Sullivan says. When they first met, they talked about O’Sullivan’s favourite Fleetwood Mac record. “[Sonya] said, ‘That was made by these crazy addicts who were in turmoil, and yet this beauty emerged from that.’ And she went, ‘That’s like your life. I see you and your life in this book and the story as coming from this turmoil, but look at the beauty.’”

The adaptation process was “hard at first, but also exciting”. O’Sullivan was moved by the “beautiful” expansion of some characters, like her primary school teacher Ms Arkinson, who kept fresh underwear for her in the classroom. Re-encountering her journey from poverty and trauma to becoming a professor at Maynooth University helped her to “really appreciate how amazing I am, how privileged I am to have escaped that life”.

She was on a panel at an event I attended. Acted as if every Trinity student was some fop who went skiing every Winter in the Alps – painted an image where she was the poorest student Trinity has ever seen, and she’s so smart those privileged people were no match for her.

Found her self indulgent tbh.

Katriona is an amazing human being. Her book was a difficult read and not sure if there’s many out there as resilient as her. I never want to meet her as I don’t believe in meeting my heros. A student that gets to sit in one of her lectures is truly blessed.