Born in Ireland, to Breton parents, Olwen Fouéré is a writer, producer and theatre maker. A reviewer once said of her that if she sat on a stage doing nothing it would still be completely compelling.

Fouéré makes theatre that people find disturbing or unsettling and much of her extensive body of work is provocative, the kind of art that stays with you or even might change you a bit. Since the 1970s she has been working solidly in film and theatre. Her film work includes This Must Be The Place with Sean Penn, Mandy with Nicolas Cage and The Survivalist which is very apt these days.

In theatre, she is best know for a powerhouse performance of Salome at The Gate and Riverrun, her own seminal work which evoked the voice of the river in Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake and toured all over the world. Fouéré spoke to Roisin Ingle at our sixth Big Night In on Zoom about life, loss, art, love, family and open relationships.