“The blues was always in Ireland and it was always in me”

OTTILIE

Jolene O’Hara is a performer born and bred in Belfast. Theatre credits include: Wiper at Work, Dear Ireland (The Abbey Theatre, Dublin), Ottilie Patterson in Ottilie (Grand Opera House Belfast 2025), Polly in Good Vibrations (Irish Arts Centre, New York 2023 & Lyric Theatre, Belfast 2018), Florinda in Into The Woods (NI Opera/Lyric Theatre), Kiss Me Kate (NI Opera/Lyric Theatre), Sweeney Todd (NI Opera/Lyric Theatre), Mirrorball (Replay Theatre Co/Lyric Theatre), Pumpgirl in Pumpgirl (Decadent Theatre Company) and Logainne in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Bruiser Theatre Company). Jolene's TV credits include: Eat the Rich (RTE Storyland), My Mother and Other Strangers (BBC),| Maru(RTE), Scoop (RTE) and Cracking Crime (RTE).

Jolene has been part of the Spectacular Grand Opera House Pantomime each year since 2022 as Hook in Peter Pan, The Wicked Queen in Snow White and The Wicked Step Sister in Cinderella. She is delighted to be back this year as The Evil Stromboli in Pinocchio!

Jolene is a main vocalist for Lush! Classical at The SSE Arena & Belsonic Belfast with The Ulster Orchestra.  She is one half of singing duo 'O'Hara' with her sister Philippa. They have performed all over Ireland and the UK including The Player’s Dinner at The 153rd Golf Open in Portrush and have amassed over 10 million views on YouTube. 

Jolene provides vocals on Van Morrison's Remembering Now, Orangefield Live and Moving On Skiffle albums and is part of the band line-up for his live shows. Jolene has also appeared on 'Classical Connections' with John Toal on the BBC accompanied by Ruth McGinley. She also performed with the RTE Concert Orchestra with Guy Barker conducting at the National Concert Hall, Dublin.

PIANIST/ARRANGER

Zak Irvine is a talented young jazz pianist and bandleader from Bangor.  Zak has been performing over the last couple of years over various Jazz venues, including Bert’s Jazz Bar and Scott’s Jazz Club, Belfast and The Courthouse, Bangor.  He has collaborated with different artists and honed his skills, developing a polished and versatile jazz piano style, with a passion for improvisation. Zak is now a prominent figure in Northern Ireland’s music scene. 

DIRECTOR

Matthew McElhinney is an Actor and Director from Belfast.  His recent directorial work includes the 25th anniversary production of A Night in November, which was nominated for two Offies and won Best Production at the LPT Awards.

Matthew also directed the World Premiere of How to Bury a Dead Mule, by Richard Clements which was nominated for Best new Play at the UK Theatre Awards.  His work on Man Who Swallowed a Dictionary, a one man play about the life of David Ervine was nominated for an Aisling Award.

Matthew has recently finished directing a UK and Irish Tour of Stones in His Pockets which has been met across the country with rave reviews.

This year, due to popular demand, his remount of the hugely successful A Christmas Carol, will be playing at the Lyric Theatre along with the poignant Dear Arabella, which opens this Autumn.

Writer

Richard Clements is an actor, writer, musician and producer from Bangor. He has worked across Theatre, TV, Film and Radio and trained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College, Cardiff.  Highlights include Rhino (Tinderbox, UK Theatre Best Revival), playing Jimmy Gralton in Jimmy’s Hall at The Abbey, Rick Turner in The Fall, and most recently writing and producing his own critically acclaimed one man show, How To Bury A Dead Mule for the Edinburgh Fringe in 2023. (Nominee UK Theatre Award Best New Play and Fringe Foundation Mental Health Award ) He is set to return for a second year, to the Lyric Theatre’s production of A Christmas Carol in November.  His ongoing creative partnership with Belfast Stories and Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive, has led to “Storymakers”, two albums of stories and poems set to music. Throughout the project, other artists have been commissioned to develop the pieces further. He is currently writing a new one man show about his childhood.

Set/Costume Design

Tracey trained at The University of Wales, Aberystwyth receiving a BA Honours in Drama and Scenography.

Recent design credits include; Set and Costume Design 'Dear Arabella' Patrick Talbot Productions & Rathmore Productions; Set and Costume Design 'Julie' (Kabosh Theatre Company) Set Design 'Yerma' (Tinderbox Theatre Company) Set Design 'Little Woman' (Lyric Theatre).

Credits include, Set Design 'Rhino' (Tinderbox Theatre Company); Set and Costume Design 'The Headless Solider: An Opera Triptych' (The Belfast Ensemble); Set Design

'Little Amal - The Seahorse and The Wolf' ArtsEkta; Set Design 'Hume-Beyond Belief:

The Life and Mission of John and Pat Hume' (Playhouse, Derry); Set and Costume Design 'Silent Trade' and 'The Shedding Of Skin' (Kakash Theatre Company); Set and Costume Design 'Big Man' (Lyric Theatre); Set and Costume Design 'Bridesmaids of Northern Ireland' (Martin Lynch & GBL Productions); Set and Costume Design 'In The Name Of The Son -The Gerry Conlon Story' (Green Shoot Productions); Set Design 'The Trumpet & The King' (Terra Nova Productions); Costume Design 'Xintigone' (Prime Cut Productions & The MAC); Set and Costume Design 1s lomaí Rud a Tharla / The Story of the Irish Houses' (Aisling Ghéar); Design Associate 'Abomination: A DUP Opera' (The Belfast Ensemble and Outburst Arts), Instillation art piece 'The Molly Bed' Arts Over Boarders.

Tracey was Associate Designer for Prime Cut Productions. Credits including The Border Game (Co-Production, Lyric Theatre) and Father, The Father (Co-Production, MAC Theatre).

Lighting Design

Mary Tumelty, born and lives in Belfast, graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast in 2004 with a BA in Drama Studies. She trained at the Grand Opera House, Belfast in Lighting, Sound and Stage Management for two years. In 2006 she moved to a full- time permanent position within the Brian Friel Theatre at Queen’s University as a theatre instructor.

Recent Lighting design credits include; Abomination (Lyric Theatre - The Belfast Ensemble & Outburst Festival) which received an Irish Times Theatre Award for Best Opera 2020. Kindermusik (Belfast Children’s Festival) The Saviour (The Everyman Theatre, Cork - Landmark Productions) Body Politics (MAC, Belfast, Brian Friel Theatre - MACHA Productions) A Night in November (MAC, Belfast – Soda Bread Theatre Company) Pinocchio (Lyric Theatre) How to Bury a Dead Mule (Naughton Studio) Blue Stockings (Lyric Drama Studio) Abomination (Abbey Theatre, Dublin) Birds of Passage in the Half Light (Gilded Balloon Edinburgh - Tinderbox) Propaganda (Lyric Theatre - Belfast Ensemble) The Snow Queen (Lyric Theatre) Silent Trade (Naughton Studio - Kabosh) Agreement (Lyric Theatre) The Hen Do (Grand Opera House Belfast - GBL) Burnt Out (Lyric Theatre) Rhino (Naughton Studio – Tinderbox) Winner of Best Play Revival award at the UK Theatre Awards. The Headless Soldier (Lyric Theatre - The Belfast Ensemble) Hansel & Gretel (Lyric Theatre) Have Yourself A Scary Little Christmas (Lyric Theatre) Agreement 24 (Lyric Theatre) Agreement 24 (Irish Arts Centre) New York City. Women on the Verge of HRT (Grand Opera House Belfast & The Gaiety Theatre Dublin – GBL ) Riot Symphony (Ulster Hall – The Belfast Ensemble) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Theatre) Anthem for Dissatisfaction (Brassneck Theatre Company) Agreement (The Gate Theatre) Yerma (Naughton Studio – Tinderbox) Aurora (The Mac Theatre – Primecut) Suspect Device (Kabosh Theatre Company)A Christmas Carol (Lyric Theatre) The Necklace (The Belfast Ensemble, Lyric Theatre) Importance of being Ernest ( Lyric Theatre) Come From Away, St Agnes Choral Society (Lyric Theatre) Dear Arabella, Patrick Talbot and Rathmore Productions ( Lyric Theatre) Dublin Jack, The Belfast Ensemble (Dublin and London)

Relights: The Dead An Opera (The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin) Backwards up a rainbow, Landmark Productions (Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire).

Film Credits: Ten Plagues (The Belfast Ensemble) Democracy Dances (Orchestra and Electronics collaboration) Ulster Orchestra and The Belfast Ensemble (Waterfront Hall) The Musician (Lyric Theatre - The Belfast Ensemble) Conversations with Friends (Lyric Theatre - CWF Productions, Element Pictures, BBC Three, Hulu)

I’m am delighted to be working on Ottilie by Richard Clements at the Studio in The Grand Opera House Belfast with Rathmore Productions.

Production Manager

Malcolm has been involved in the theatre business for 40+yrs. and also been a Teacher and Lecturer in Performing Arts for 35+yrs. He has designed sets; lighting, and carried out venue conversions for a wide range of Companies and Institutions. For many years he was the Staging Consultant for Belfast Festival At Queen’s, the forerunner to the Belfast International Arts Festival. He holds a BEd. degree in Drama and English and an MA in Theatre Studies. With Red Rose Theatre Company he performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, although much prefers ‘behind the scenes’ work.

He won a Belfast City Council Arts Partnership Award for his work in staging the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Festival performances in Tower Street Theatre, East Belfast. (A theatre conversion he designed for the first Higher National Diploma courses in Theatre, in Ireland).

He established Production Management Services (PMS) in 2011 and has undertaken numerous freelance engagements at home and on tour with: Cahoots NI; Lyric Theatre; Prime Cut Productions; The MAC; Theatre at the Mill; The Playhouse L/Derry; Brian Friel Theatre at Queen’s; Bruiser Theatre Company; Aisling Ghéar Theatre Company; Brassneck Theatre Company; c21 Theatre Company; Kabosh Theatre Company; Nuala McKeever Productions; Carol Moore Productions; Richard Clements Productions & Dan Gordon Productions.

He is delighted to be working on this important new work and with such a fantastic team.

Stage Manager

Caoimhe is a freelance theatre maker from Donegal and a graduate of 
the Drama BA and Arts Management MA at Queen's University, Belfast. 

She has been working professionally as a stage manager since 2019, with credits including Good With Faces (Óisín Kearney, Dublin Fringe Festival), ROOTS (Eileen McClory, Off The Rails Dance Company), This Sh*t Happens All The Time (Amanda Verlaque, Grand Opera House, Lyric Theatre).

Caoimhe has recently had success as a director and producer with Float (Kirby Thompson & Orla Graham) at The Flagey Theatre in Brussels, Belgium, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and the MAC, Belfast. 

She was one of Theatre and Dance NI’s INVEST artists 23/24, explor-
ing dance dramaturgy under the mentorship of Sharon Clarke from the 
Akram Khan Dance Company. 

Caoimhe has always had a keen interest in music and dance and is very excited to be working on a show featuring such excellent blues music! 

Sound Design

Thomas Reid is a freelance stage manager, theatre technician (Audio and LX) based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He works regularly with Greenshoot & GBL Productions, NI Opera and Shine as part of their local crew and lighting team, contributing to club nights, concerts, festivals and large-scale live events. With extensive touring experience across the UK and Ireland, he has collaborated with West End performers and supported a wide variety of productions, bringing a versatile skill set across stage management, technical support and lighting. He is dedicated to ensuring productions run smoothly and to supporting performers in delivering their best work.

Producer

Rathmore Productions is owned by internationally acclaimed actor and director, Ian McElhinney. With nearly 50 years in the business., Ian’s best known roles are Barristan Selmy in Game of Thrones, Morgan Monroe in The Fall, and Granda Joe in Derry Girls., as well as High Country, Unforgotten, The Split. As a director, he was the winner of a Canadian Dora Award and nominated for a Tony Award for Stones in his Pockets. As producer, he has worked across - How to bury a dead Mule ( UK Theatre Award Nominee Best New Play, Edinburgh Fringe Foundation Mental Health Award Nominee), Weddin’s Wee’ins and Wakes, Rock Doves, Fly me to the Moon, Dear Arabella.

Ian is proud to be producing ‘Ottilie’ and to help keep her legacy alive.