"The purpose of storytelling is to show the kaleidoscope of life"

Aisling O’Sullivan admits “bullheadedness” led to her decision to ditch a degree in marketing to pursue acting in her 20s.

However, the die was cast long before then in a small Kerry classroom, where she was first introduced to acting. Her teacher, who also happened to be her father, would put on a play each week to demonstrate what was learned during the week.

“I just thought it was the business,” says Aisling, who still hasn’t lost her Kerry lilt. “We’d knock great craic out of it, and it started my interest in making stories and how they’re told.

“I don’t know what it’s like now for young people moving into the world, but for me I felt very lost moving forward. I wasn’t quite sure of a direction to follow. I was strongly drawn towards acting, but I didn’t think it was a possibility, but I couldn’t imagine finding happiness in any other avenue.”

Silver screen to stage

Known to many audiences for her roles in RTÉ dramas The Clinic and Raw, and in films such as The Butcher Boy and Six Shooter, Aisling has also tread the boards in most theatres in Ireland. She is currently starring in the Gaiety Theatre’s production of John B Keane’s Big Maggie, after first playing the title character in 2011.

Given her Kerry roots, she feels a certain affinity with the script.

“The intelligence, the wit, the rhythm in the language, the way the characters think … it’s very familiar to me,” she says.

Portraying the character of Maggie, a matriarch who is determined to take control of her life following the death of her husband, is a challenge Aisling relishes.

“I find her really intriguing ,and I consider the play one of our Irish masterpieces. It’s about a very complex person, who is trying to free herself in a time when it wasn’t very easy to be a woman and free in Ireland,” she says.

“In 1969, when the play was released, there were things that a woman could not do,” Aisling continues. “She couldn’t sit on a jury, she couldn’t drink a pint in a pub, she couldn’t get a barring order if her husband was violent.

“A major thing is that she couldn’t live securely in her family home: she had no property rights. All of that has changed now, but this play is about a woman who inherits everything from her husband, a farm and a shop, which gives her considerable power and emancipation, and how she tries to hang on to that.”

Aisling was involved in the Waking the Feminists movement when the Abbey Theatre’s programme for 1916 included just one female writer. Is enough being done to encourage women in theatre?

Questioning the norm

“I think people are beginning to question it a little bit more: why aren’t we seeing more women and stories around women? The answer has to be encouraging and nurturing our female writers, directors and actors.

“The outrage [over the Abbey’s 1916 programme] was because women have participated in this country forever as well. It was a glaring omission that, in 2016, there wasn’t more of a balance in the gender perspective. It was a very necessary outcry,” she says.

“The purpose of storytelling or any kind of art is to show the kaleidoscope of life, and you can’t really show that if you’re only hearing one half of the story.”

She thinks that an “unconscious bias” exists when the work of women is judged by peers.

“It refers to the idea that just because something is written by a woman, it is viewed more harshly or maybe you might have a bias against a show directed by a woman, or a woman playing a certain role. It certainly made me very aware of unconscious bias I mightn’t be aware of inside myself,” she explains.

A collaboration

Aisling loves working with theatre legend Garry Hynes, who is directing Big Maggie. They have collaborated for 20 years, since Aisling received her first contract with the Abbey Theatre.

“I always keep learning from her. We are always pushing each other, and it’s a nourishing experience and relationship in terms of my professional career,” she says.

When speaking about her own career, Aisling is grateful for the roles she has played over the years.“I have been very fortunate because I keep getting offered very interesting and complex women to play,” she says.

Does she have a preference between film, television and stage?

“I kind of fall in love with the characters, whether they are film or television. It’s whoever I’m playing and my engagement with them. That’s the yardstick for me,” she says.

“At the moment, I’m playing Big Maggie and I’m trying to understand her and my reactions to her. As for a favourite character, it’s hard to pick one out. I love them all - they’re all my children!”

And Aisling will be playing the indomitable Maggie until 12 March, now that the original run has been extended.

“The reaction has been wonderful. It feels like there’s something important being said, but it’s also entertaining and funny,” she says.

“I think we have tapped into the zeitgeist in Ireland at the moment, examining our history, our females and their history and we are doing it all through John B Keane’s fabulous writing.”