5 minutes with Pat Kinevane: 'Irish people are fascinated by death'

There’s a huge tradition in Ireland of amateur drama. I joined a few organisations in my home town then when I moved to Cork, I was working as a nurse and a civil servant, I was always able to make friends through a community or amateur group. My father passed away when I was 21 and it gave me a kick up the arse to do something. So I took a risk and auditioned for a professional company in Dublin.

I suppose I've always scribbled away. Short stories, bits of poetry, but I had never really presented them to anyone. I met Jim Culleton from Fishamble in the '90s and he asked whether I had anything I would like to develop into a stage play. It was very lucky – to have someone taking a punt on me.

Underneath is sort of one in a trio. There's Silent, which is about six years old, and Forgotten which is about ten. Underneath is the baby. We've been touring with it over the last two years. The common denominator is that they are performed and written by me.

We encounter the woman in Underneath for the first time when she's in her tomb. She talks about her journey, how when she was a young girl she was struck by lightening. Her face was dreadfully scarred and she talks about how she has been treated by society and how her struggle informed her path. How cruelty followed her everywhere and love evaded her.

I had wanted to write about what beauty is for a while. How we judge each other on our faces. The story itself is a collage of different tales, some are factual some are fiction. I think Irish people by nature are fascinated by death, it's a national obsession, so there's lots of comedy. But it is mainly a piece about survival and about how somebody can be isolated just by a little skin over their face.

I don't think I could have made Underneath with a different theatre company. I trust Fishamble, I have been working with them for 30 years now. You are very vulnerable when you are working by yourself and Jim is an absolute gentleman. He has huge vision when it comes to directing and it is very important to have someone like that by my side.

It took about three years in all to get Underneath going before its first performance. So it has been about five years in the making. I am really looking forward to it coming to London. I think I had to leave it to germinate in my head as I got older and I am 50 this January and I'm not sure I would have had the confidence to write or perform this piece before then.

Underneath runs at Soho Theatre until 17 December.