On this episode of Turning Points in France, Patricia Killeen chatted with Kelly
Rivière, an actress of Franco-Irish origin. Kelly trained in dance at the Lyon Conservatory and then after translation studies in Switzerland, she studied at the renowned Cours Florent theatre school in Paris, where she now teaches “Acting in English” to third-year students She is also a theatre translator and member of the English committee of the Maison Antoine Vitez. In 2017, she created the Innisfree
company and wrote An Irish Story, a bilingual show on the quest for her origins which has been a phenomenal success, winning her the prestigious New Talent Humor SACD prize in 2020. In 2022, she starred in two films Sage-femmes and Une Année Difficile and she regularly reads plays on France Culture. Kelly chatted about how life’s Turning Points can lead you in a completely different direction; her training in, and disappointment with ballet paved the way for her success on the theatre planks, where she found a new liberty of expression. Writing and performing about a family secret has now projected her on an international path.
Listen to the episode here:
Thanks to the encouragement of Nora Hickey M’Sichili, Directrice of the Centre
Culturel Irlandais (CCI), and strong support from the Embassy of France in Ireland.
Kelly will perform An Irish Story, in partnership with the CCI, in four theatres in Ireland this
November. One of the theatres is in Limerick (The Belltable), where her Irish Grandfather was born.
His disappearance marked her family forever. An Irish Story is a journey into the heart of a family with its secrets and its silences.
The touring dates are:
Wednesday 2 November , 6.30pm
Alliance Française Dublin
Tickets
Friday 4 November, 8pm
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
Tickets
Tuesday 8 November, 8pm
The Everyman, Cork
Tickets
Thursday 10 November, 8pm
Belltable, Limerick
Tickets
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