Review: Dauntless: Grace O’Malley, Pirate Queen

An exceptional evening of storytelling about an exceptional woman

When all you have on stage is nothing but one storyteller with a chair, they are going to need to be exceptional to sustain the attention of an audience over 90 minutes.

Debs Newbold is exceptional. The story she tells of Gráinne Mhaol Ní Mháille, more commonly known as Grace O’Malley – brings us another exceptional woman.

Dauntless is the story of Grace O’Malley’s life, specifically weaving together how the pirate came to have a meeting, more of a negotiation, with Queen Elizabeth I at Greenwich Palace.

Elizabeth herself was another exceptional woman. Both her and Grace were queens of their different kingdoms. Both women were battling against the patriarchal world of the 1500s to earn respect, claim their power and maintain it.

Dauntless is a strong piece of theatre that is inspiring as well as entertaining and really quite educational. It centres women. It’s a feminist battle cry. It challenges the barriers that held women back and celebrates the ones who broke through them at a time it was near impossible.

It’s also looks at a specific point in the complex political history of Ireland. How clans of families who ruled their own lands were pushed back by English ships bringing colonisers. The ongoing spread eventually brought them closer to Clew Bay in the west to clash head on with O’Malley. It was to lead to tragedy.

Dauntless is not a story about a hero. Debs tells us that right at the start. People are more complex than that. And yet it’s hard not to be impressed with the Pirate Queen’s reign and kingdom. The sheer brass neck of her implementing a tax on passing ships. Being known and feared across different countries.

Debs encourages us at the start to use our imagination and see the story play out inside our heads like cinema. Cast our preferred actors as the characters. Imagine the blues of the seas, the Irish Galley ship, the creak of the wood.

Dauntless will leave you feeling entertained and empowered. There’s very few tickets left for the Bristol run so it’s worth booking immediately.

Dauntless: Grace O’Malley, Pirate Queen is on at The Wardrobe Theatre until Saturday 26 September 2026

For more information or to book, visit: https://thewardrobetheatre.com/shows/dauntless-grace-omalley-pirate-queen/

Follow Debs Newbold on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debsnewboldplays/

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