Olwen brings ‘dazzling’ Arts Festival show to London’s National Theatre

The one-woman theatre show, riverrun, which premiered at Galway Arts Festival in July, will tour to London in March, when it will be staged at the Shed, the National Theatre’s newest and most unusual venue.

The piece is based on an adaptation of the voice of the river in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. It was written by one of Ireland’s most creative theatre artists, Olwen Fouéré, who also directed and performed in it.

During its premiere at Galway Arts Festival riverrun received major praise from the Irish and UK press. The Financial Times gave a five-star review, while The Irish Times described Fouéré’s performance as “thrillingly accomplished . . . full of dazzling variation”.

The production subsequently enjoyed successful runs at the Kilkenny Arts Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival.

riverrun, produced by Galway Arts Festival and the Emergency room, will open at London’s National Theatre at the South Bank on March 11 and run until March 22. It will be staged in The Shed, an unusual and temporary 225-seat venue, which was erected at the National last April, with the aim of presenting “some of theatre’s most exciting artists in an intimate new performance space on the South Bank”.  The Shed is due to be removed this April.

This production of riverrun will be Galway Arts Festival’s second visit to The National – one of the world’s leading theatres – in two years. The Festival’s co-production of Enda Walsh’s Misterman with Landmark Productions, which starred Cillian Murphy, played the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in 2012.