Kate Ireland’s Golden Time is a heart-opening gem of a solo show that speaks directly to the experience of being ‘different’ with warmth, humour and profound compassion. Whether you’re a teacher, a parent of a neurodivergent child, or someone who perhaps grew up with ADHD, long before schools understood it, this is a show for you.
The title, Golden Time (and Other Behavioural Management Strategies), may almost sound like a CPD session or a lesson plan, but what unfolds is a deeply personal and moving story, rich with insight and compassion.
Structured around Kate’s first week as a teaching assistant, the show unfolds day by day, with each new school morning bringing fresh observations about the classroom – and one pupil in particular. Cleverly, Kate addresses this child as “you” throughout, a storytelling device that instantly draws the audience into the experience. For anyone who is neurodivergent or loves someone who is, this device lands with real emotional weight.
Kate Ireland is utterly captivating. Her presence is natural, grounded, and instantly likeable. With subtle, often funny moments of her own daily challenges, regularly losing her lanyard, running late, she gently weaves in the adult experience of living with a brain that doesn’t always fit the mould. For audience members who relate, it’s like being truly seen.
Visually and aurally engaging, the show pulses with energy – bright visuals, a couple of thumping dance tracks, well-placed subtitles and some interactive moments with the audience all make the hour fly by. But it’s the quieter, more emotionally vulnerable moments that leave the deepest impression. Several scenes land with such emotional weight that they leave this reviewer teary-eyed.
And when Kate invites the audience to engage, it never feels forced. It feels like being let into a shared truth, one that taps into something childlike and universal.
At its heart, Golden Time is a call for understanding and compassion – not just for children, but for anyone who has ever felt out of step with the world around them. In an age where awareness of ADHD and other forms of neurodiversity is growing rapidly, this show is a vital, timely reminder that different does not mean broken.
Interactive without ever being uncomfortable, Golden Time invites us to reconnect with our inner child – the one who just wanted to be accepted. And that standing ovation? More than earned.
