Cain
John Caird
Jonathan Cake
David Calder
Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Michael Calf
Camille
Camino Real
Cheryl Campbell
Il Candelaio
Can Opener
The Canterbury Tales
Captain Swing
John Carlisle
Jason Carr
Carrie
Nancy Carroll
Elaine Cassidy
The Castle
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
The Changeling
Jan Chappell
Ian Charleson
Ian Charleson Awards
Geoffrey Chaucer
Paddy Chayefsky
Anton Chekhov
Nick Chelton
The Cherry Orchard
Children of the Sun
Alison Chitty
A Christmas Carol
Christopher Columbus
Tony Church
Caryl Churchill
The Churchill Play
Clay
Dennis Clinton
A Clockwork Orange
The Collection
Patience Collier
Columbus and the Discovery of Japan
The Comedy of Errors
Complete Works Festival
Comrades
Kerry Condon
William Congreve
Shelley Conn
Paule Constable
The Constant Couple
Nina Conti
Kandis Cook
Ron Cook
Dominic Cooke
Nigel Cooke
Richard Cordery
Coriolanus
Charlotte Cornwell
Oliver Cotton
Yvonne Coulette
Country Dancing
The Country Wife
Courtyard Theatre
Cousin Vladimir
Andrea J. Cox
Brian Cox
Claire Cox
Cries from the Casement
Crimes in Hot Countries
The Criminals
Derbhle Crotty
Bob Crowley
The Crucible
Frances Cuka
Paddy Cunneen
Liam Cunningham
Julian Curry
Curse of the Starving Class
Curtmantle
Cyril Cusack
Niamh Cusack
Sinéad Cusack
The Custom of the Country
Cymbeline
Cyrano de Bergerac
Niamh Cusack trained as a musician, and worked for a while as an orchestral flautist before following her sisters into acting. She appeared at the Gate, Dublin, in A Woman of No Importance and Arr N'a Pogh, and at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in Three Sisters (Casper Wrede, 1985), then joined Sinéad and brother-in-law Jeremy Irons at the RSC. She played Desdemona to Ben Kingsley's Othello (Terry Hands, RST, 1985, Barbican, 1986); Jess in Angela Hewins's Mary, After the Queen (Barry Kyle, Warehouse, Stratford, 1985); a memorable, contemporary Juliet opposite Sean Bean in Michael Bogdanov's production of Romeo and Juliet (RST, 1986, Barbican, 1987); the eroticised Jane (writhing around on a bed in nightie and socks) in Nick Dear's Hogarth play The Art of Success (Adrian Noble, TOP, 1986, Pit, 1987); and Sue, dancing ecstatically, in Nigel Williams's Country Dancing (Bill Alexander, TOP, 1986). On leaving the RSC she was wasted in Lenz's The Tutor at the Old Vic (Angelika Hurwicz, 1988) and in episodes of Poirot and Jeeves and Wooster. She played a minor part in David Hare's Paris By Night (1988).
Two roles placed Niamh Cusack in the front rank of young classical actresses. In 1990 she returned to Dublin to play Irina alongside her sisters and father (Chebutykin) and Finbar Lynch (Tusenbach) in Adrian Noble's production of Three Sisters (Gate Theatre). She presented a character in transformation: at the beginning, a pretty girl celebrating her name day, full of joie de vivre, if a little proud; in the claustrophobic middle act throwing water at her reflection in the mirror ('I'm twenty-three... my brain's drying up. I'm getting thinner, I'm getting ugly, old, old...'); at the end with severe drawn back hair, a plain dress, and spectacles—as though all the life had been drained away. There was a genuine sense of pain in this performance, as well as a hint of fanaticism. Three years later, also at the Gate, she excelled as Nora in The Doll's House (Karel Reisz, 1993).
She devoted the next few years to the popular television series Heartbeat (ITV). She returned to the theatre as Felicity Kendal's replacement in Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink (1995), then rejoined the RSC. She was physically elegant as both Rosalind in As You Like It (Steven Pimlott, RST, 1996, Barbican, 1996) and Armande in Molière's The Learned Ladies (Pimlott, TOP, 1996, Pit, 1996). She has since played Claire opposite Kerry Fox in Genet's The Maids (John Crowley, Donmar Warehouse, 1997); Fran in Peter Moffat's Nabokov's Gloves (Ian Brown, Hampstead Theatre, 1988); Portia in The Merchant of Venice (Gale Edwards, Chichester, 2003); Elaine in Laura Wade's Breathing Corpses (Anna Mackmin, Royal Court, 2005); Jane in Amelia Bullmore's Mammals (Mackmin, Bush, 2005); Mrs Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts (Mackmin, Gate, 2007); Millamant in Congreve's The Way of the World (Selina Cadell, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 2007); Erna in Victoria Benedictsson's The Enchantment (Paul Miller, NT Cottesloe, 2007).
Other screen appearances: Gillies MacKinnon's The Playboys (1992); Colour Blind (ITV, 1998); Always and Everyone (ITV, 1999-01); Rhinoceros (ITV, 1999); The Closer You Get (2000); Loving You (ITV, 2003); State of Mind (ITV, 2003); Marple: 4.50 from Paddington (ITV, 2004); The Last Detective (ITV, 2005); Fallen Angel (ITV, 2007).
Education: Colaiste Iosagain, Dublin; Royal Academy of Music; Guildhall School of Music and Drama
RSC: Joined 1985
Seasons: 1985 (Strat./Lond.); 1986 (Strat.)-87 (Lond.); 1996 (Strat.)-96/97 (Lond.)
TOPHOME