‘You never know what’s around the corner’ – this is the warning and lament that begins this tale of human pain from Ireland’s new writing company Fishamble. We’re in a dark underworld of black and gold. A slinky, androgynous body wrapped in dark, weed-like foliage slinks across the stage, his bright white eyes glinting out from a splash of golden paint. Writer and performer Pat Kivenane has concocted a deathly black comedy that shimmers with an eerie undertone of broken humanity, expertly directed by Jim Culleton.

Underneath tells the story of a woman who has been ostracized from mainstream society. It’s a simple tale of bullying turned violent, of prejudice and the brutality of small-mindedness. What makes this stand out from similar stories is Kivenane’s writing and his razor sharp, surprising performance. He chats to us in a thick Cork accent, making friends with two audience members to whom he constantly refers throughout the entire piece. It’s as if we’re sitting in his living room having a cup of tea and he’s telling us about going to the shops. Except the story leaps from disturbing tales of the prostitutes (who he endearingly nicknames Aldi & Lidl), our protagonist’s mutilation from horrific burns and how the foxes flip mice into the air as they savage them.  His physical embodiment of this broken character is outstandingly vivid. His body ripples with pain as he twists himself into the frequent bursts of horrified memory of his suffering.

It’s is both a suspenseful storytelling and a meditation on the inevitable cruelty of human existence. As our unnamed heroine’s tale races towards the inevitable, Kivenane breaks out into anecdotes about pop culture – trying to comprehend why people give a shit about ‘Downton Fucking Abbey’ and re-enacting scenes from A Place in the Sun in which a couple search for 30 years for their perfect home. He had me in stitches.

As we learn of our heroine’s fate, we’re asked to consider how we might die; to confront the fact that we have no clue what’s coming next – maybe we’ll get a smack of a Volvo or choke on a Quality Street. The biting humour gives way to surprising honesty as Kivenane pleas with us never to walk down the street without sending positive thoughts to the people passing us by – ‘you never know how lonely they might be’.  Hidden under the gold cloak and hilarious text, Underneath urges us to be better people, to put a halt to snap judgments and remember that while we’re alive we desperately need humanity to keep us going.