Who is Alison Oliver, the Cork star of Sally Rooney's Conversations With Friends?
Alison Oliver will star in the Sally Rooney adaptation, Conversations With Friends.
When Alison Oliver was announced as the lead actor in the the upcoming television adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel, Conversations With Friends, the public couldn't have been blamed for scratching their heads and wondering 'Who?'
Despite a lifetime of performing in Cork theatre shows, the young Blackrock actor is not a household name. At least not yet, as this breakthrough role looks set to put her on the same path to fame as Paul Mescal and others in the show's predecessor, Normal People.
The fact that Oliver has been chosen for this golden opportunity comes as no surprise to many of the people who have tutored or worked with her through the years.
“Alison has that luminosity that you see in movie stars,” says Irene Warren of the Performers Academy in Cork. “There has always been something special about her, and she just lights up the stage no matter the role she plays.”
Oliver attended the Performers Academy from the age of nine and all through secondary school, performing in numerous productions over the years. Warren remembers her young charge as a stand-out talent from the very beginning.
“She’s always just been this kid that has it,” says Warren. “She’s gifted, funny, extremely hard-working, and I would say that the key thing to her is that she’s gracious and grateful. She never has any airs and graces, she’s always grounded, and she has a mischief to her, a lovely, charming, endearing quality, and she’s always very kind, and very friendly.”
Conversations with Friends is being produced by Element Pictures, in association with RTÉ, BBC, and US streaming service Hulu. It follows on the phenomenal success of last year’s TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People. The two projects have been described as “cousins” by executive producer Ed Guiney, although all involved are keen to stress that Conversations with Friends is, as Guiney puts it, “very much its own thing”.
Lenny Abrahamson, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for Room (2015), directed six episodes of Normal People and was also executive producer on that series. The Dublin-born film-maker returns to the director’s chair for Conversations With Friends, and he told the Irish Examiner he is very much looking forward to working with Alison Oliver in the months ahead.
“Alison is a major talent with a brilliant career in front of her, and it’s a privilege to be able to cast her in her first screen role,” Abrahamson said. “I can’t wait to start working with her alongside Sasha, Jemima, Joe and the rest of the cast when shooting starts in April.”
Oliver's friends in Cork’s Firkin Crane theatre have expressed their delight at the success of “one of our own”, with Ann Rea, the Firkin Crane’s front of house manager, remembering Alison as “just a gorgeous person who always stopped for a chat, and who always was very good when it came to helping out with the smallies.”
Oliver's former voice and singing coach, Gemma Sugrue of Voiceworks Studio, added that she is thrilled that Alison’s acting talent has been recognised.
“Alison is also a lovely singer, very musically intuitive. She has a real talent there, too,” said Sugrue.
A past pupil of Ballintemple National School and Scoil Mhuire in Sidney Place, and now in her early twenties, Oliver is a graduate of the prestigious Lir Academy of Dramatic Art at Trinity College, Dublin. Loughlin Deegan, director of the Lir Academy, noted that Oliver is one of two of the academy’s graduates to feature in the new series.
We're feeling very proud of Lir graduates Alison Oliver (BA Acting) and @MeadhbhGalway (MFA Playwriting & @DramaTCD grad) on their involvement in the upcoming Conversations with Friends. Congratulations - 2022 can't come fast enough! https://t.co/OB0vEXsBAU
— The Lir Academy (@TheLirAcademy) February 17, 2021
“We are thrilled to see the involvement of two of our graduates, Alison Oliver from our BA in Acting programme and Meadhbh McHugh from our MFA in Playwriting programme, in the upcoming series Conversations with Friends.
“It is wonderful to see their talent and hard work recognised in such an eagerly anticipated adaptation, and it follows on from the remarkable success of our graduates, including Paul Mescal, in Normal People last year. Ten years after the Lir Academy opened its doors, it is really encouraging to see our graduates being offered opportunities at this level.”
Drama teacher Irene Warren predicts that the casting of her star pupil in Conversations with Friends is only the beginning for Oliver. “And if there’s anyone who deserves success, it’s Alison. Not just because of her huge talent, or her incredible hard work, but because of who she is.”
- Conversations with Friends will run on RTÉ, BBC, and Hulu in 2022
