Bair­bre Ní Chaoimh

Bair­bre was recently seen play­ing the role of Aunt Kate in the ANU/​Landmark pro­duc­tion of The Dead at MoLI.

An award-​winning actor, Bair­bre also works as a direc­tor and writer. She has toured nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally with all the major Irish the­atre com­pa­nies, per­form­ing in Ire­land, Eng­land, Scot­land, Ger­many, Kosovo, Mace­do­nia, Amer­ica, Canada, Japan, and Aus­tralia. She was an Asso­ciate Artist at The Abbey The­atre for three years and served as Artis­tic Direc­tor of Calypso Productions.

Recent act­ing roles include Sampa in The Rose Tat­too at The Com­plex, Meryl in The Dry for RTÉ, The Mother in One Moment Now for Mur­mu­ra­tion at Bewley’s Café Dublin and Woolly Mam­moth The­atre in Wash­ing­ton DC, Mrs. Bunch in Lost Hearts (on stage and screen), the title role in Maura Laverty – This Was Your Life on a national the­atre tour and in an adap­ta­tion for RTÉ Drama on One (Zeb­bie Award 2022), Aunt Bee in My Aunt Bee on a national tour, Mrs. Bren­nan in Dáil 100 for Speck­in­time at Lein­ster House, and as a nar­ra­tor and pup­peteer in The Self­ish Giant for The Wilde Gar­den Adventure.

She was nom­i­nated for act­ing awards for roles in two Druid pro­duc­tions—The Shaugh­raun and The Play­boy of the West­ern World—and for Drama at Inish at The Abbey The­atre. She has appeared in sev­eral award-​winning immer­sive shows by ANU Pro­duc­tions, includ­ing Basin (set in The Bless­ing­ton Street Basin), Laun­dry (set in the Sean McDer­mott Street Mag­da­lene Laun­dry), which won the Irish Times Best Pro­duc­tion award, and Thir­teen (at Lib­erty Hall), which won the Irish Times Judges’ Spe­cial Award.

Per­for­mances at The Gate The­atre include Pri­vate Lives, A Mid­sum­mer Night’s Dream, The Rivals, Salomé, and Come and Go. At The Abbey, she per­formed in The Pic­ture of Dorian Gray, The Sanc­tu­ary Lamp, Ulysses in Night-​town, Can­dide, The King of Friday’s Men, Galileo, The Far Off Hills, Drama at Inish, Cúirt An Mheanoíche, Deo­raíocht, and Scéal Scéalaí. She also worked on The End of the Road for Fisham­ble, Fear An Tae for Amhar­clann de h-​Íde, An Tri­ail for Ais­ling Ghéar, The Hen­house Epiphany/​Cinneadh Na Circe for An Taib­hd­hearc, and Our Island for Mirari at Project Arts Cen­tre (which received five award nom­i­na­tions at the Dublin Fringe Festival).

Bair­bre won an Actor’s Craft Award for her role as Ais­ling in the bilin­gual film An Crann/​The Tree at the First Run Film Fes­ti­val in New York. She played Carmel in Ireland’s drama ser­ial Glen­roe. Her film and TV cred­its include Washed Up Love, Aris­to­crats, Angela’s Ashes, Falling for a Dancer, August Sat­ur­day, The Real Char­lotte, Caught in a Free State, Val Falvey TD, Lovers of the Lake, Pad­dy­whack­ery, Fair City, Scúp, Corp agus Anam, Aifric, Na Fíor Ghaeil, Friends for Life, The Pearse Sis­ters, Finbar’s Class, Frankie Starlight, The Play­boy of the West­ern World, Les Poneys Sauvages, The Fan­ta­sist, The Out­casts, The Orange and the Green, Cúirt An Mheanoíche, Raw­head Rex, and Ham­let and Her Broth­ers.

She has directed sev­eral pro­duc­tions that received awards in Ire­land and at inter­na­tional fes­ti­vals in Europe, Amer­ica, and Aus­tralia. These include plays for Calypso, three plays by Samuel Beck­ett—Act With­out Words II, Come and Go, and Play—for The Gate Theatre’s Inter­na­tional Beck­ett Fes­ti­val, which toured to The Bar­bi­can in Lon­don and The Lin­coln Cen­ter in New York, and Catalpa by Donal O’Kelly, pro­duced by The Gate The­atre, Lane Pro­duc­tions, and Red Ket­tle, which won awards on three con­ti­nents. She also helped develop and sub­se­quently directed Noni Stapleton’s one-​woman show Charo­lais. Since its debut at the 2015 Dublin Fringe Fes­ti­val, it has toured world­wide and received a host of awards, includ­ing the Stew­art Parker Award and the Lit­tle Gem Award. It was also a final­ist for the Susan Smith Black­burn Prize. Bair­bre played the role of Bri­die in a three-​hander adap­ta­tion of the play for radio, which won a Prix Europa, a Sil­ver Award at the NYC Radio Awards, and a PPI Bronze Award.

Bair­bre has acted in numer­ous radio plays for RTÉ and in their long-​running drama ser­ial Har­bour Hotel. She also directed the radio play Baby and Bath­wa­ter and has acted in sev­eral plays for BBC Radio.

Bair­bre is based in Dublin.