ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Olwen Fouéré

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

In conversation with DONNA REIDY-MAGUIRE

FORMATIVE BEGINNINGS Born to Breton parents and raised on the Aughris Beg Peninsula, Olwen Fouéré describes much of her childhood as “desperately trying to assimilate”. Her parents moved around quite a bit so she did not have the chance to attend the local school and develop friendships which she regrets. Her assimilation came by realising how amazing her surroundings were and developing a fascination with the people around her. She describes the significance that this wild, rugged and remote place had on her upbringing, “At that time there were very few foreigners settling in Ireland. I was very conscious that we were the “French family” and that we were different, so I felt like an outsider despite the fact that I was born there. But I thank the Gods that I was born in that part of the world because for me it was a hugely formative part of my person, my being. To grow up there, way out on the extreme west coast fostered an incredibly intense connection with nature. My most formative or my most intense relationship was with that part of the world, that land at the edge of the ocean. People often say how family shapes you and they do of course but I think where you put your feet down first can actually be a really powerful influence on you.” Olwen felt that she never really connected to an Irish identity as such or didn’t really begin to feel Irish util she started working in theatre as an actor, (“if I’m anything Irish, I’m Galweigan”) but now very much feels herself part of the Irish cultural landscape through her work. THE RELUCTANT ACTOR As one of the most celebrated live performers in Ireland with a slew of awards and accolades, how did this journey into the world of theatre and performance begin? “My interests were in medicine and the Arts. Initially I thought I would go down the route of painting or sculpture but slowly, through being in Dublin, I started going to some theatre and got more and more interested in it and decided to explore it further. At first, I didn’t really know if it was going to be as a theatre designer or an actor but it quickly became clear that acting was what I wanted to do”. Having no formal training as such, Olwen remembers walking up to the door of the Focus Theatre, knocking and asking if she could watch. The inimitable Deirdre O’Connell answered the door to Olwen and informed her that while she was not permitted to watch, she could take part… “ that knock on the door changed my life”. The Focus Theatre was producing some amazing work and was a melting pot of incredible actors at the time such as Gabriel Byrne, Margaret Toomey, Tom Hickey and Oscar-winner Joan Bergin. Olwen then began working with Peter and Jim Sheridan at the Project Arts Centre and spent two years performing in shows back to back, “there was an incredible energy in the place”. It was a period of hard learning, learning through exposure

and navigating her way through an intense journey. During this time, Olwen began to gravitate to dance and physical theatre, “The body is the site of everything that you do in live performance”. Immersing herself in various masterclasses such as Tai Chi amongst others gave Olwen a more eclectic training route than if she had attended a traditional drama school. Her lack of “formal training” The body is seems to have contributed to the site of her multi-layered, transformative everything powers as an artist and performer, that you she seamlessly embodies people do in live or entities in astonishing ways. performance “I call myself a reluctant actor, I’ve always been really lucky, never really thought of it as a career. I always want time off but when I get time off, I think what will I do? Acting is my way of communicating with the world. I’m a very solitary person so if I didn’t have an equally powerful way of communicating with the world, then I would become a total hermit.” I mention that I believe there is a misconception that actors are often extroverts or attention seekers. Most are introverts trying to connect with people. Olwen agrees, “I think fundamentally what you are trying to communicate is something that’s not within our everyday reality because our everyday reality is so reduced. It’s a form of spirituality, it’s a form of connecting with all those other dimensions of existence, all the more important ones that is”. GOING SOLO Perhaps one of Olwen’s best known work is riverrun which she adapted, directed and performed as the voice of the river in James Joyce's Finnegan’s Wake. Produced by TheEmergencyRoom and Galway International Arts Festival in association with Cusack Projects Limited, it completed a hugely successful run at festivals and theatres around the world. The idea for riverrun came about when she was in Australia touring with Mark O'Rowe's Terminus. “We were asked to do some readings for Bloomsday while we there so I agreed to read Molly Bloom if they let me read some Finnegan’s Wake. I read the last page and I knew immediately that this was going to be my next project - the voice of the river, and off I went with it. It was a really significant

Photography by Luca Truffarelli

moment in my creative life".

Having performed a range of one-woman shows, does she have a preference for solo work as opposed to ensemble? “The beautiful thing about solo is you can really create a world, you have full responsibility for this space so you can go very deep and very far into it whereas with an ensemble you do that with your role but you have to do that in the context of the world that is being created collectively. I love working as an ensemble but sometimes you might get an urge to do something and think, I better not do that so I don’t unbalance everything. You are having to work in a different way, it’s not that it holds you back necessarily but you have to negotiate the world in a different way whereas with a solo you can take bigger risks”.

WHAT’S NEXT Olwen has a host of upcoming projects for 2022 including a cameo as Princess Diana’s acupuncturist in Season 5 of The Crown, It’s a form of spirituality, The ITV/Virgin Media Television adaptation it’s a form of connecting of the Graham Norton bestseller Holding, a with all those other starring role in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre dimensions of existence Sequel (Netflix) and in the Robert Eggers film “The Northman” starring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy and Willem Dafoe. There are also installations, development works, film and further live performance to look forward to. Having worked continuously throughout the pandemic, does she look forward to taking some time off? “I am brilliant at doing nothing, I find solitude is something that I need. I’m less good at using time off when I feel I should be doing something. If I have earned it, I’m brilliant at taking time off.”