(Simon Carswell’s article appeared in the Irish Times, 5/17.)
The Cork-born actor Fiona Shaw is busy wrapping up odds and ends at home in London, including some work connected to her role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, before hopping on a flight for Washington, DC.
Shaw is the artist-in-residence for Ireland 100, a festival celebrating a century of Irish arts and culture at the John F Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in the US capital, which opens today and runs until June 5th.
She is directing the festival’s opening performance on May 17th, which will “present a taster” of the Irish artists performing over the three-week festival, the centrepiece of the US commemorative celebrations for the 1916 Easter Rising.