Olwen Fouéré (born 2 March 1954) is an Irish actress and writer/director in theatre, film and visual arts. She was born in Galway, Ireland to Breton parents Yann Fouéré and Marie-Magdeleine Mauger. In 2020, she was listed at number 22 on ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

'' list of Ireland's greatest film actors. Boarded in St Dominic’s College Cabra Dublin

Career

As a freelance actress, Fouéré works internationally in English and French with numerous appearances at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

, the

Gate Theatre The Gate Theatre is a theatre on Cavendish Row in Dublin, Ireland. It was founded in 1928. History Beginnings The Gate Theatre was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál MacLiammóir with Daisy Bannard Cogley and Gearóid Ó Lochla ...

in Ireland, the

Royal National Theatre The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

in England, the Bouffes du Nord in Paris, at

Brooklyn Academy of Music The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a multi-arts center in Brooklyn, New York City. It hosts progressive and avant-garde performances, with theater, dance, music, opera, film programming across multiple nearby venues. BAM was chartered in 18 ...

New York,

Sydney Theatre Company Sydney Theatre Company (STC) is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales. The company performs in the Wharf Theatre at Dawes Point in The Rocks area of Sydney as well as the Roslyn Packer Theatre (formerly Sydney Theatre ...

Australia and

Shakespeare Theatre Company The Shakespeare Theatre Company is a Regional theater in the United States, regional theatre company located in Washington, D.C. The theatre company focuses primarily on plays from the William Shakespeare, Shakespeare canon, but its seasons inc ...

. In 1980 she formed Operating Theatre, an avant-garde theatre company with composer Roger Doyle. She later established an artistic entity called TheEmergencyRoom for the development of her ongoing projects which have included the creation of her internationally acclaimed RIVERRUN (her adaptation of the voice of the river in

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

Finnegans Wake ''Finnegans Wake'' is a novel by Irish literature, Irish writer James Joyce. It was published in instalments starting in 1924, under the title "fragments from ''Work in Progress''". The final title was only revealed when the book was publishe ...

); her staging of Lessness by

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

(Barbican, Galway International Arts Festival and Project Arts Centre, Dublin); her translation and production of Danse, Morob, written for her by the French writer Laurent Gaudé and her translation and performances of Sodome, My Love (in association with Rough Magic) also by Laurent Gaudé; a film project co-directed by Kevin Abosch from a script by Anne Enright titled ''Cassandra:fragments of a playscript''.

Stage

Filmography

Film

Television

Visual arts

Olwen Fouéré features in several works by artist James Coleman which continue to be shown internationally. Their first collaboration So Different and Yet... was created in 1980. She worked with artist Andrew Duggan on "unravel_róis" on Inis Oirr, Dublin Biennial and University of Lyon. She collaborated with artist Jesse Presley Jones representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale 2017 on a film installation 'Tremble Tremble'.

Honours

Olwen Fouéré was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate (Doctor of Philosophy - Honoris Causa) from

Dublin City University Dublin City University (abbreviated as DCU) () is a Third-level education in the Republic of Ireland, university based on the Northside, Dublin, Northside of Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Created as the ''National Institute for Highe ...

in April 2016

Awards

* The Irish Times Theatre Awards Special Tribute 2013 for outstanding achievement and contribution to theatre in Ireland. * The Herald Archangel Award 2014 for "riverrun" and her outstanding contribution to the Edinburgh Festivals. * 'Best Actress' in the Irish Times/ESB theatre awards 2011 for "Sodome, My Love" by Laurent Gaudé produced by Rough Magic in association with TheEmergencyRoom * 'Samuel Beckett Award' at the Dublin Theatre Festival for her role as Hester Swane in the world premiere of " By the Bog of Cats" by Marina Carr at the Abbey Theatre 1998. * 'Best Actress' at the Dublin Theatre Festival 1982

Nominations

IFTA Ifta is a former municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Al ...

nomination for 'Best Supporting Actress' in 'The Survivalist' by Stephen Fingleton * 'Best Actress' in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2013 for 'riverrun' by TheEmergencyRoom * 'Best Actress' in the Harvey Awards 1985 for 'The Diamond Body' by Operating Theatre. * 'Best Actress' in the Irish Times/ESB Theatre awards 1999 for 'By the Bog of Cats' by Marina Carr * 'Best Actress' in the Irish Times/ESB Theatre awards 2000 for 'Angel/Babel' by Operating Theatre * 'Best Actress' in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2006 for 'Titus Andronicus' directed by Selina Cartmell.

Publications

She has contributed to a number of publications on contemporary theatre and performance including: * The Dreaming Body, edited by Melissa Sihra and Paul Murphy; * Women in Irish Drama, edited by Melissa Sihra * Actors Voices: the people behind the performances, edited by Patrick O'Kane * The Theatre of Marina Carr, edited by Cathy Leeney and Anna McMullan * Theatre Talk, edited by Lilian Chambers, Ger Fitzgibbon and Eamonn Jordan * Operating Theatre 1980–2008 Zero-G, October 2008.

Documentary

A documentary of a year in her life, "Theatre in the Flesh" directed by Dara McCluskey, was produced for RTÉ's Arts Lives series in 2005.

External links

Olwen Fouére
Official website *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fouere, Olwen Living people Irish stage actresses Irish film actresses 21st-century Irish writers Irish people of Breton descent Place of birth missing (living people) 1954 births Actors from County Galway