Ann Russell
Ann’s theatre performances include roles in Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet (Nurse), Richard 11 (Duchesses of York & Gloucester) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Titania) as well as roles in plays by contemporary Irish dramatists and classics of European and American theatre.
She began her professional career in the 1980’s with the late Deirdre O’Connell at the Focus Stanislavski Studio. As a member of Focus Theatre and Studio she had the opportunity to perform and direct. Favourites from her many roles at Focus include Katherine Glass in The Secret Rapture (David Hare), Chantal in The Balcony (Jean Genet), Sue Bayless in Arthur Miller’s classic play All My Sons and the dominating Bea in Clifford Odets’ Awake and Sing.
Ann also loves performing in comedy. She toured Ireland in John B. Keane’s The Chastitute and in Moll. Her UK/Irish tour with Women on the Verge of HRT gave her the opportunity to perform in major historic theatres throughout the UK. In A Titter of Wit which she devised, directed and performed in at the Irish Writers’ Centre, she played various characters in classic Irish plays from Sheridan and Wilde to O’Casey and Beckett.
Recent theatre roles were Sally in Michael Harnett’s play Sally’s Return (2025), Ivy in Tara Maria Lovett’s The Tide (Irish Tour) and Carol, an alcoholic gambler, in the European premiere of Risk Everything by Canadian dramatist George F. Walker. Ann has played many feisty opinionated women but her performance as the compassionate and caring Constance in Elysium Nevada by Barry McKinley (Dublin and tour) was a complete contrast to these.
Ann’s first TV role was as Carmel in Roddy Doyle’s Family, directed by Michael Winterbottom, a BBC/RTE co-production. More recently she played the eccentric Marian in the TV series Harry Wild with Jane Seymour (2023) and appeared in Ted Endo’s short film Everything in its Place. This year too (2023) Robbie Walsh’s feature The Letters (first released just prior to the pandemic) was screened in NYC as part of the First Irish Festival. Here she plays the role of Bridget a woman with dementia whose daughter -and carer - is suffering from terminal cervical cancer. The Letters is available on Apple TV and Prime Video. Earlier in her career she appeared in TV series Fair City and Ballykissangel.
Directing includes Are you Listening to me Gaybo by Mary Halpin which toured throughout Ireland. Tara Maria Lovett’s The Shape and Greatest Hits by Thomas McLaughlin (Dublin Fringe).