PRESS HIGHLIGHTS
THE WORKS PRESENTS: OLWEN FOUÉRÉ
SEASON 2, PROGRAMME 2
THURSDAY 28th JANUARY 2016 / RTÉ ONE / 11:15PM
This spring on RTÉ One, inspired by the great innovators of the Cultural Revival, The Works Presents meets five of Ireland’s most inventive cultural figures. Their work questions society, politics and accepted ideas; or takes traditional arts practices into new, and exciting, territory. These are the innovators, the trailblazers, the activists, who repeatedly push boundaries to open up new horizons in their respective art forms.
The Irish artists on the cutting edge of their craft we meet are: actor, writer and theatre artist Olwen Fouéré; singer and lyricist Iarla Ó Lionáird; theatre director Louise Lowe; artist Brian Maguire; and film director Lenny Abrahamson.
In Episode Two of the series, John Kelly meets actor, writer and director Olwen Fouéré, a theatre artist who in the last four decades has combined roles in the classics – from Greek tragedies to Shakespeare – and contemporary classics – starring in plays by writers like Mark O’Rowe and Marina Carr – with her own, highly experimental, work.
This revealing and intimate interview opens with her looking back on her unusual childhood in Connemara: her parents were Breton separatists who were forced to flee France in the 40s because of their political views, and the young Foueré grew up between languages and cultures as a result.
She reflects on a career that has been marked by the influences of Ireland, France and her Breton roots; her love of experimentation and compulsion to explore hitherto uncharted territory in her performances; how she developed her own, unique, movement-based style; and her many and varied collaborations with artists from different disciplines.
Foueré is a true pioneer; a performer who, over a long career, has never ceased to explore, question and innovate. She is currently touring two, universally-acclaimed, solo shows that she has devised herself: Lessness by Samuel Beckett, and Riverrun, inspired by the voice of the river in Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce.
ENDS