Olwen Fouéré, born in Ireland of Breton

Breton people

The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 parents, is an Irish/French actress and theatre artist whose work occupies a central position in contemporary Irish theatre and crosses the boundaries of many art forms. She has performed with most major theatre companies in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Her father is the Breton nationalist and Celtic League founder Yann Fouéré

Yann Fouéré

Yann Fouéré was a Breton nationalist and an European federalist. He was born as Jean-Adolphe Fouéré in Aignan, Gers....

.

Career

She is an Artistic Director of Operating Theatre (with composer Roger Doyle). Her work with Operating Theatre work includes her ground-breaking solo performances of The Diamond Body ( 1984–89) written by Aidan Mathews and The Pentagonal Dream (1987) written by Sebastian Barry. She appears in the performance installation Here Lies, created in collaboration with director Selina Cartmell and presented in Galway, Dublin and Paris, which maps Antonin Artaud

Antonin Artaud

Antoine Marie Joseph Artaud, more well-known as Antonin Artaud was a French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director...

's 1937 journey through Ireland.

Fouéré has also performed extensively at the Abbey Theatre

Abbey Theatre

The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...

 and at the Gate Theatre

Gate Theatre

The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...

, Dublin, where she created the role of Salome

Salome

Salome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...

 in Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff

Steven Berkoff is an English actor, writer and director. Best known for his performance as General Orlov in the James Bond film Octopussy, he is typically cast in villanous roles, such as Lt...

's production of Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

's Salome

Salome (play)

Salome is a tragedy by Oscar Wilde.The original 1891 version of the play was in French. Three years later an English translation was published...

, which toured internationally. She has played several major theatre roles in the UK with the Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, the RSC, ESC and the role of Rosaura in Life is a Dream directed by Calixto Bieito

Calixto Bieito

Calixto Bieito is a Spanish theater director known for his "radical" interpretations of classic operas.-Biography:...

 at the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum Theatre

Royal Lyceum Theatre

The Royal Lyceum Theatre is a 658 seat theatre in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, named after the Theatre Royal Lyceum and English Opera House, the residence at the time of legendary Shakespearean actor Henry Irving. It was built in 1883 by architect C. J. Phipps at a cost of UK£17,000 on behalf...

, Barbican and BAM

Bam

Bam is commonly used as an onomatopoeia for a sound, mostly that of an impact or collision.Bam or BAM may also refer to:Places:*Bam, Iran, a city*Bam County, an administrative subdivision of Iran*Bam Province, Burkina Faso...

 ('98-'99).

Her many stage performances include roles in Peep Gynt, Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author

Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...

, Antigone

Antigone

In Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...

, A Cry from Heaven

A Cry from Heaven

A Cry from Heaven is a play by Irish playwright Vincent Woods. It retells the story of the beautiful Deirdre and the Sons of Usna which is one of the great tragedies of Irish myth. The birth of a girl heralded by omens of a vulture-shrouded sky begins the drama of King Conchobar mac Nessa and his...

, and the central roles of Hester Swane and the Mai in the world premieres of By the Bog of Cats and The Mai which were written for her by playwright Marina Carr.

Her film appearances are few and include the 1986 film Time after Time with John Gielgud

John Gielgud

Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...

 and Googie Withers

Googie Withers

Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

, Harden Shoulder and Saltwater by Conor Mc Pherson and Space Truckers

Space Truckers

Space Truckers is a 1996 American comedy science-fiction film written and directed by Stuart Gordon. It was filmed at Ardmore Studios, County Wicklow, Ireland....

with Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper

Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...

 and Charles Dance

Charles Dance

Walter Charles Dance, OBE is an English actor, screenwriter and director. Dance typically plays assertive bureaucrats or villains. His most famous roles are Guy Perron in The Jewel in the Crown , Dr Clemens, the doctor of penitentiary Fury 161, who becomes Ellen Ripley's confidante in Alien 3 ,...

.