Ois O’Donoghue is an interdisciplinary artist, actor and producer from Dublin.
Her practice focuses on the exploration of the bounds of medium and genre, using convention like a cat uses a ball of yarn to delve into the things that divide us and bring us together in an increasingly divided world. Her work focuses on themes of isolation, queerness and societal progression and regression, all from an Explicitly Trans perspective.
In 2020, Ois co-founded Jaxbanded Theatre with collaborator Ruairi Nicholl, where she would go on to create works in a variety of mediums, including the short film Camping At The End Of The World, the concept album Sentimental: A New Gig Musical, as well as the virtual interactive theatre piece Aion which would go on to be accepted into the 2023 Game Developers World Championship. In 2023 Jaxbanded performed Work In Progress Performances of HYPER and Sentimental: A New Gig Musical at the Scene & Heard 2023 Festival. Outside of Jaxbanded, has directed Adaptations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Kae Tempest’s Wasted and Mark O’Rowe’s Buzzin’ To Bits. She has also recently performed in productions of Luke Shanahan’s The Absolute State and is featured as ‘Izzy’ in Lemonsoap Production’s new Radio Drama Fruit in Association with Once Off Productions.
In a Producing capacity, Ois has worked alongside Lovano and United Fall on productions such as Night Dances, What We Hold, King Shrine and Gold In The Water. Recently, Ois acted as Co-Director of the 2023 ISDA Festival alongside Daniel Culleton.
She is currently the Company Manager of United Fall. She is also producing Martha Knight’s The King Of All Birds as well as her own piece HYPER at the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival.
Ois holds an MA in Theatre Practice from University College Dublin.
HYPER By Ois O’Donoghue and Jaxbanded Theatre
“Do you think they heard Ronnie Drew, but saw Lady Gaga?”
From PC Music to SOPHIE to 100 Gecs, for decades now Trans people have been using Hyperpop as a way to shatter standards of genre, gender and good taste. Right now, the only thing Saoirse wants to shatter is her own f*cking voice.
Life has always been the same for Conall and Saoirse. Rehearse. Gig. Pints. But following a shift in Saoirse’s identity they must confront the changing nature of their music and friendship as they prepare for their comeback performance.
A confrontation that forces Saoirse to explore the deeper parts of herself in a search for righteous and riotous Trans Joy. Told through live vocal modulation and manipulation, HYPER is a rip-roaring and unabashedly Queer theatrical deep dive into Trans Identity and Music. What it means to
speak, sing and, for the audience (yes, you babe), to listen.
The King Of All Birds By Martha Knight, Produced by Ois O’Donoghue
We’re obsessed with seeing ourselves from above. We display aerial photos of our homes, we gather in our masses to watch men fly, and, every couple of hundred years, we crown a king.
This is a fresh and playful gig for voice and vocoder. It picks apart our shared history with the sky: the years when it remained untouched, those first ventures into it, and now, our endless climbing up, and up, and up.
image:credits
1. HYPER. Photo credit: Kilian Harrison
2. The King Of All Birds. Photo credit: Owen Clarke
Emerging Producers: