Rachel O’Riordan

Rachel O’Riordan was appointed the Artistic Director of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in February 2019, her first programmed season will begin in September 2019.

Rachel was the Artistic Director and CEO of Sherman Theatre from February 2014 – February 2019. During her tenure the theatre was transformed into a vibrant, exciting and influential producing theatre, winning The Stage’s prestigious Regional Theatre of the Year Award in 2018. Her credits as a director for the theatre include: The Cherry Orchard; the Olivier award-winning Killology (with the Royal Court); Bird (with the Royal Exchange) and Iphigenia in Splott (also at the National Theatre; England tour, Edinburgh Festival, Schaubūne, Berlin and off-Broadway).

Her freelance directing credits include: Come on Home (Abbey, Dublin); Unfaithful (Traverse, Edinburgh); The Absence of Women (Tricycle, London); Everything is Illuminated (Hampstead Theatre); The Glass Menagerie (Lyric Theatre, Belfast) and with the Peter Hall Company she directed Miss Julie and an adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm at the Theatre Royal Bath.

Rachel was named as one of the most influential people in UK Theatre in the most recent Stage 100 in 2017 and 2018. She is a Council Member of Art Council Wales. She is a participant in the British Council’s Take the Stage initiative, working with emerging Ukrainian directors on new writing in a conflict environment. Published work includes in NT Connections: Plays, 2011; Women in Irish Theatre (Macmillan); and various academic journals. She has also written articles for the Irish Theatre Magazine and Fortnight (on new writing in Northern Ireland).

Previously she was the Artistic Director of Perth Theatre in Scotland between 2011 and 2014. Her directing credits at the theatre included: Someone who’ll Watch Over Me; Moonlight and Magnolias; The Odd Couple, Female Version; The Seafarer (with Lyric, Belfast), winning the Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland for Best Director and Best Ensemble for Macbeth (with Tron, Glasgow). During this time Rachel directed five new short operas for the MAC in Belfast and a transfer of Owen McCafferty’s The Absence of Women to the Tricycle Theatre (now Kiln), London.

From 2002 to 2011 Rachel co-founded and ran Ransom Productions based in Northern Ireland. With Ransom she directed the award-winning Hurricane, which received high critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in the West and off Broadway. During her time as Artistic Director she commissioned and directed various new works including the first play by David Ireland, Arguments for Terrorism, Early Bird by Leo Butler, Transparency by Suzie Miller, Protestants by Robert Welch and This Piece of Earth by Richard Dormer. She also ran a three year programme, Write on the Edge (2007-2010), a project to develop female writers in post-conflict Northern Ireland.

Rachel trained at the Royal Ballet School. She went on study English and Theatre Studies at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London and completed her PhD at University of Ulster on Shakespeare’s Physical Text.