BORN on the west coast of Ireland to Breton parents, Olwen Fouéré is an actor, writer and theatre artist. In 2014, she won a hat-trick of prestigious awards including the Herald Archangel award of the Edinburgh Festival, The Irish Times special tribute award for her contribution to Irish theatre and The Stage Award for acting excellence. This month she takes part in International Beckett Season at the Barbican in London when she reads the evocative short prose, Lessness from June 5-8.
What are you up to right now?
Sitting in a Dublin garden on a beautiful evening, reflecting on the great moment not so long ago when Ireland became the first nation in the world to support same-sex marriage by direct popular vote. And only two decades after homosexuality was decriminalised. It already feels as though the battered republic has a new confidence and a renewed sense of what is possible to achieve through activism and engagement.
Who are your heroes?
In the words of the river on page 625 of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake “The brave that gave their. The fair that wore. All them that’s gunne…”
What’s been the best decade of your life so far and why?
My forties and onward. In my forties I accessed an energy I didn’t know was in my realm. And in the current decade, I found the ability to act on it.
What song sends a shiver down your spine?
That changes all the time. For the last couple of years, it has been Jammu Africa by Ismael Lo.
What is your favourite place in Ireland?
Aughrusbeg Peninsula where I was born and grew up, on the extreme west coast of Connemara, Co. Galway.
Trevor Knight and Raymond Keane in Act Without Words II (Photo: Hazel Coonag)What makes you angry?
More than anything else, people who are so blindly self-righteous that there is no hope of a cure.
What book influenced you most?
There have been many but a very early influence, in my teens, was The Outsider by Colin Wilson.
What was the worst moment of your life?
Boarding school. I lost precious years locked up in the name of a limited education. I still wish I had rebelled and run away.
Which local star in any field should the world outside Ireland know about?
Tom Murphy, one of Ireland’s greatest living playwrights. I can’t believe how his international reputation is less than many of his contemporaries or successors.
If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
I would like to relive a number of years with the energy and knowledge that I have now.
Can you recommend an interesting website?
What is the best lesson life has taught you?
Embrace the moment. Life is like a graph — the deeper you dive, the higher you fly.
What is your favourite film and why?
I love all of Andrei Tarkovsky’s films, they are hauntingly beautiful and disturbing. I often use his film Stalker as a reference in my work.
I also love Ordet by Carl Dreyer and Uccellaci e Uccellini by Pasolini for many of the same reasons. And I passionately love anything by or with Charlie Chaplin. I wish, as an actor, that I could do what he does. He is a master.
Robert Wilson in Beckett's Krapp’s Last-Tape (Photo: Lucie Jansch)What do you believe in?
Love, sexuality, spirituality, art and death.
What trait do others criticise you for?
Wanting the sun, moon and stars.
On what occasion is it OK to lie?
Never.
What do you consider the greatest work of art?
Nature, not man.
What is your ultimate guilty pleasure?
Slothful solitude, but I never feel guilty about it.
Where do you live and what are the best and worst things about that place?
I don’t live anywhere at the moment although I have a semi-permanent base in Ireland. I believe it is better to be nomadic. Domesticity doesn’t suit me.
Who is the love of your life?
That will remain a secret and perhaps still to be discovered, even by me.
International Beckett Season takes place at Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS until Sunday, June 21. The theatre programme comprises nine pieces by outstanding international companies and artists performed in four different locations. For info call the box office: 0845 120 7511 or visit www.barbican.org.uk/theatre
