# Rachel O'Riordan

Rachel O'Riordan (born 1974) is an Irish theatre director. She is the artistic director at the Lyric Hammersmith, London.

## Early life and education

Born in Cork, Ireland to poet and novelist Robert Anthony Welch and Angela O'Riordan Welch, O'Riordan first trained as a ballet dancer. This culminated in a scholarship to the White Lodge, Royal Ballet School and then Mariinsky Ballet (formerly Kirov). She studied English and Theatre studies at Queen Mary, University of London, before completing her PhD entitled Shakespeare's Physical Text: The Body's Imperative at the University of Ulster in 2002.

## Career

From to 2002 to 2011, O'Riordan co-founded and ran the Ransom theatre company in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she directed the production Hurricane. The show was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and earned a season in London's West End and Off-Broadway in New York City. O'Riordan then completed a season with the Peter Hall Company, where she directed August Strindberg's Miss Julie, and an adaption of George Orwell's Animal Farm at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England.
O'Riordan's tenure as artistic director of Ransom saw her commission and direct the first play by David Ireland, Arguments for Terrorism, and new plays Early Bird by Leo Butler and Transparency by Suzie Miller, Protestants by Robert Welch, and, the Irish famine-based This Piece of Earth by Richard Dormer. During this time she also ran a three-year programme entitled Writers on the Edge to develop new writing for women in Northern Ireland.
O'Riordan was artistic director at the Perth Theatre between 2011 and 2014. Her first production was Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. "Unfaithful" by Owen McCafferty was produced by the Traverse Theatre for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014.
In October 2013, O'Riordan was announced as artistic director of the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff, and took up the post in February 2014. The most significant result of the time in Cardiff was the formation of the partnership with playwright Gary Owen. Iphigenia in Splott and Killology were both award-winners.
In January 2016, she was named amongst the 100 most influential people in theatre in the UK by The Stage.
In February 2019 O'Riordan joined the Lyric Hammersmith, London as artistic director, succeeding Sean Holmes. Her first production was a transposition by Tanika Gupta of A Doll's House to Victorian Kolkata.
Productions in the return of theatre after the pandemic in 2022 were Scandaltown and a revival of Iphigenia in Splott, again with Sophie Melville. It was the choice of critic Arifa Akbar in The Guardian for best production of the year.

### Personal life

O'Riordan is married to actor Richard Dormer.

## Selected productions

| Year | Title | Venue | Writer | Notes |
| 2019 | A Doll's House | Lyric Hammersmith Theatre | Tanika Gupta | The first production of Rachel O'Riordan's tenureship as Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. |
| 2018 | Foxfinder | Ambassadors, London | Dawn King | |
| 2018 | Bird | Katherine Chandler | Sherman Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange | |
| 2018 | The Weir | Sherman Theatre | | |
| 2017 | Arabian Nights | Sherman Theatre | | |
| 2017 | The Cherry Orchard | Sherman Theatre | Anton Chekov, in a new version by Gary Owen | |
| 2017 | Unfaithful | Traverse Theatre | Owen McCafferty | Edinburgh Festival |
| 2017 | Killology | Sherman Theatre/Royal Court | Gary Owen | Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Affiliate Theatre. |
| 2015/2016 | Iphigenia in Splott | Sherman Theatre | Gary Owen | 'Best new play' at the Theatre Awards UK. |
| 2013 | The Seafarer | Perth Theatre, Lyric Belfast | Conor McPherson | Shortlisted at the annual Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for best ensemble, best production and best director. Won 'Best Ensemble' and 'Best Director'. |
| 2013 | Macbeth | Perth Theatre | William Shakespeare | |
| 2013 | Moonlight and Magnolias | Perth Theatre | Ron Hutchinson | |
| 2012 | Someone who'll watch over me | Perth Theatre | Frank McGuinness | |
| 2012 | Twelfth Night | Perth Theatre | William Shakespeare | |
| 2011 | Arguments for Terrorism | Oran Mor | David Ireland | |
| 2011 | Over the Bridge | Waterfront Belfast | Sam Thompson | |
| 2011 | The Absence of Women | Lyric Belfast/Tricycle Theatre | Owen McCafferty | |
| 2008 | Absolution | Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Festival | Owen O'Neill | Won the Best Director award in the First Irish Theatre Festival Awards in New York. |
| 2007 | Much ado about nothing | Lyric, Belfast | William Shakespeare | |
| 2006 | Ms Julie | Theatre Royal, Bath | | Co-direction with Sir Peter Hall |
| 2006 | Everything is Illuminated | Hampstead Theatre | Owen McCafferty | |
| 2005 | The Glass Menagerie | Lyric, Belfast | Tennessee Williams | |
| 2005 | Animal Farm | Theatre Royal, Bath | George Orwell | Adapted by Sir Peter Hall |
| 2004 | Hurricane | Soho Theatre/Broadway | Richard Dormer | |