Susan FitzGerald
Encyclopedia
Susan FitzGerald is an Irish actress, best known for her work in television and her work in Irish theatre. She also played the role of May in Samuel Beckett
's Footfalls
for the Gate Theatre
's Beckett on Film
project. She is currently appearing in the Dublin production of Noel Coward
's Present Laughter
.
in the 1970’s, and since then she played leading roles in the Gate Theatre
in plays by a variety of Irish and foreign writers. She is particularly known for playing May in Footfalls in the Gate’s celebrated Beckett Festival in New York and London, and filmed Footfalls for the Beckett on Film project. She has also worked for the Abbey Theatre
, in plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author
, A Midsummer Night's Dream
and Hedda Gabler
. Recently at the Gate she has appeared as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest
, as Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice
(she reprised the role in the Spoleto Festival in Charleston) and Jane Eyre (directed by Alan Stanford
), in The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, directed by Dominic Cooke
and in Martin Crimp
’s adaptation of The Misanthrope, Pygmalion
, directed by Robin Lefèvre and furthermore in The Constant Wife, directed by Alan Stanford. She has also appeared in a variety of other projects in Ireland, including various plays at the Olympia Theatre
.
Fitzgerald's small screen work includes numerous appearances as in Fair City
, Rebel Heart, Bachelor’s Walk, Proof and The Big Bow Wow. In film, she has appeared in Fintan Connolly
The Trouble With Sex, Satellites and Meteorites and Happy Ever Afters
.
She lives and works in Dublin and has three children Sarah, Sophie and Richard.
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
's Footfalls
Footfalls
Footfalls is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English, between 2 March and December 1975 and was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the Samuel Beckett Festival, on May 20, 1976 directed by Beckett himself. Billie Whitelaw, for whom the piece had been written, played...
for the Gate Theatre
Gate Theatre
The Gate Theatre, in Dublin, was founded in 1928 by Hilton Edwards and Micheál Mac Liammóir, initially using the Abbey Theatre's Peacock studio theatre space to stage important works by European and American dramatists...
's Beckett on Film
Beckett on Film
Beckett on Film was a project aimed at making film versions of all nineteen of Samuel Beckett's stage plays, with the exception of the early and unperformed Eleutheria. This endeavour was successfully completed, with the first films being shown in 2001.The project was conceived by Michael Colgan,...
project. She is currently appearing in the Dublin production of Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Present Laughter
Present Laughter
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...
.
Biography
Fitzgerald graduated from Trinity CollegeTrinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
in the 1970’s, and since then she played leading roles in the Gate Theatre
Gate
A gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or a moderately sized opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative. Other terms for gate include yett and port...
in plays by a variety of Irish and foreign writers. She is particularly known for playing May in Footfalls in the Gate’s celebrated Beckett Festival in New York and London, and filmed Footfalls for the Beckett on Film project. She has also worked for the Abbey Theatre
Abbey Theatre
The Abbey Theatre , also known as the National Theatre of Ireland , is a theatre located in Dublin, Ireland. The Abbey first opened its doors to the public on 27 December 1904. Despite losing its original building to a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the present day...
, in plays such as Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author
Six Characters in Search of an Author is a play by the Italian writer Luigi Pirandello.The play is a satirical tragicomedy. It was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome, to a very mixed reception, with shouts from the audience of "Manicomio!" .Subsequently the play enjoyed a much...
, A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
and Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
. Recently at the Gate she has appeared as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
, as Mrs. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...
(she reprised the role in the Spoleto Festival in Charleston) and Jane Eyre (directed by Alan Stanford
Alan Stanford
Alan Stanford is a well known Irish-based actor and director.-Personal life:Stanford has lived in Ireland since 1969. He trained as an actor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London....
), in The Eccentricities of a Nightingale, directed by Dominic Cooke
Dominic Cooke
Dominic Cooke is an English theatre director and playwright. He won the 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for best director for his revival of The Crucible while working at the RSC...
and in Martin Crimp
Martin Crimp
Martin Andrew Crimp is a British playwright.Sometimes described as a practitioner of the "in-yer-face" school of contemporary British drama, Crimp though rejects the label...
’s adaptation of The Misanthrope, Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
, directed by Robin Lefèvre and furthermore in The Constant Wife, directed by Alan Stanford. She has also appeared in a variety of other projects in Ireland, including various plays at the Olympia Theatre
Olympia Theatre, Dublin
The Olympia Theatre is a concert hall/theatre venue in Dublin, Ireland, located in Dame Street.-History:Built in 1879, it was originally called the "Star of Erin Music Hall". Two years later in 1881, it was renamed "Dan Lowrey's Music Hall" and was renamed again in 1889 to "Dan Lowrey's Palace of...
.
Fitzgerald's small screen work includes numerous appearances as in Fair City
Fair City
Fair City is an award-winning Irish television soap opera on RTÉ One. Produced by Radio Telefís Éireann, it was first broadcast on Monday, September 18, 1989...
, Rebel Heart, Bachelor’s Walk, Proof and The Big Bow Wow. In film, she has appeared in Fintan Connolly
Fintan Connolly
Fintan Connolly is an Irish film director, screenwriter and producer living in Dublin.Most of his work has been in television documentaries, where he explores social issues in Ireland through a series of interviews....
The Trouble With Sex, Satellites and Meteorites and Happy Ever Afters
Happy Ever Afters
Happy Ever Afters is an Irish film written and directed by Stephen Burke. The film was first shown at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea on 10 October and released on 21 October 2009 in France.-Plot:...
.
She lives and works in Dublin and has three children Sarah, Sophie and Richard.
Film
- Happy Ever AftersHappy Ever AftersHappy Ever Afters is an Irish film written and directed by Stephen Burke. The film was first shown at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea on 10 October and released on 21 October 2009 in France.-Plot:...
- Mrs Maguire - Satellites & Meteorites - Angela Gore
- Trouble with SexTrouble With SexTrouble with Sex is a 2005 Irish drama film set in Dublin and co-written and directed by Fintan Connolly. It stars Aidan Gillen and Renée Weldon, who won an Irish Film and Television Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Trouble With Sex. The film got poor reviews and was...
- Rosie - FootfallsFootfallsFootfalls is a play by Samuel Beckett. It was written in English, between 2 March and December 1975 and was first performed at the Royal Court Theatre as part of the Samuel Beckett Festival, on May 20, 1976 directed by Beckett himself. Billie Whitelaw, for whom the piece had been written, played...
(short) - May - Angela's AshesAngela's AshesAngela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...
- Sister Rita - The Serpent's KissThe Serpent's KissThe Serpent's Kiss is a 1997 film directed by Philippe Rousselot. It is a story about a Dutch garden architect named Meneer Chrome who has been hired by a wealthy metalworker to create an extravagant garden. The film also stars Greta Scacchi and Richard E...
- Mistress Clevely - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManA Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel by James Joyce, first serialised in the magazine The Egoist from 1914 to 1915, and published first in book format in 1916 by B. W. Huebsch, New York. The first English edition was published by the Egoist Press in February 1917...
- Emma
Television
- The Big Bow Wow - Patricia
- ProofProof (TV series)Proof is an Irish television mini-serial co-produced by Subotica for RTÉ in Ireland and TV2 in Denmark. Proof had two season the second season entitled Proof 2.-Production:...
- Beatrice Cosgrove - The Irish R.M.The Irish R.M.The Irish R.M. refers to a series of books by the Anglo-Irish novelists Somerville and Ross, and the television comedy-drama series based on them...
- Miss Longmuir
External links
- Fitzgerald at IMDb
- FitzGerald's agent
- http://www.independent.ie/unsorted/features/still-waiting-for-the-real-michael-colgan-52579.html
- http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/news-gossip/wilder-than-wilde----a-suprisingly-feminist-play-91742.html
- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/1201/1227910422707.html