Rosie Sheehy on starring in Conor McPherson's 'The Brightening Air'

The future is bright for Olivier Award nominee Rosie Sheehy, who is making a name for herself in powerful, thorny dramas. Now she returns to the Old Vic for a third time in The Brightening Air.

Rosie Sheehy can’t get enough of the Old Vic. In 2015, the actor made her London stage debut at the venue in Eugene O'Neill's expressionist play The Hairy Ape, directed by Richard Jones, and just last year, she returned for the transfer of Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal, once again directed by Jones.

“I was on holiday in Morocco and got a call on the beach and the genius that is Richard Jones says, ‘Do you want to play the Young Woman?’” she recalls. “I just said, ‘Yes absolutely. Quick, make space in the diary.’” Sheehy’s gut reaction about the play was definitely right, as she earned an Olivier Award nomination for her role, which is based on the 1928 execution of convicted murderer Ruth Snyder.

“I’m aware of the history of the venue, and its richness, and the honour to perform there. Even as an audience member you see it is such a big, yet intimate space. Every time I go back, I hope this gets a tiny bit less scary,” she laughs.

For her third stint at the theatre, she will be working with another long-time Old Vic collaborator Conor McPherson, whose Girl From the North Country premiered at the venue in 2017 — and returns for a limited run this summer. However, it is his new project The Brightening Air that sees Sheehy take to the stage alongside an all-star cast that includes Brian Gleeson and Chris O’Dowd.

So what can we expect from the play? “It’s set in the 1980s, and a brother and sister live in the house their parents left them. Their older brother had left Sligo [in Ireland] to make a name for himself and comes back, but the relationship is strained. It becomes an invasion, with him trying to take the house. It’s about the family politics of who really owns the house.”

Sheehy continues: “I think we can all relate to it. I have a family home in Wales and I just think, God, if anybody came and got rid of that… It’s about the comfort and familiarity that makes us who we are. But it’s about so much more as well. It’s about heartache, loyalty, nostalgia, and the duty of care to your family.” She also says the play is incredibly funny, which is no doubt aided by the presence of O’Dowd, known for The IT Crowd and Bridesmaids. “All of us are breaking and corpsing all the time. You give him a speech to do and he will just improvise. He’s magic,” she says.

Working with McPherson is also a dream come true for Sheehy, who says, “I feel like I’ve hit the jackpot.” She was obsessed with McPherson’s The Weir while studying at RADA, as well as his coming-of-age play This Lime Tree Bower, and praises his kindness and openness. “At the beginning of rehearsals, he gave a speech where he said, ‘I have written it and I’m directing it, but I don’t have all the answers. Eventually you’ll have them more than me.’ How wonderful,” she says.

Sheehy plays Billie, the youngest of the three siblings, and describes her character as “totally authentic, she says it how it is, and is completely confident and firm in her opinions”, adding, “I’ve never played anybody quite like her before”.

She recognises one similarity between all of her roles: a focus on intimate relationships. Indeed, in 2020, Sheehy starred opposite Jonathan Slinger in the thorny drama Oleanna about a female student who makes a sexual harassment claim against her male professor, and she has just finished An Interrogation, another tense two-hander, at Hampstead Theatre. Sheehy only had one day off between An Interrogation and The Brightening Air — making time for a roast dinner and a pint before beginning rehearsals. How does she mentally switch between productions with so little time? “It is compartmentalising, you have to let it go. I keep all of my scripts in these big folders. I’m quite good at saying, ‘They live in there now.’”

There’s clearly something in the waters in Port Talbot, Wales, where she grew up. Anthony Hopkins, Michael Sheen, and Rob Brydon all hail from the small industrial town — and Sheehy even attended the same youth theatre as Sheen. “The town has a respect for acting, as much as it does rugby or its steelworks. Coming from somewhere like Port Talbot, you feel like you have that [support] behind you,” she says.

The London theatre scene is clearly benefiting from this extraordinary community's pipeline of talent, with Sheen soon to reprise his role in the National Theatre's Nye, while Sheehy is once again in her favourite spot: centre stage at the Old Vic, and grappling with a blistering, must-see drama.

Book The Brightening Air tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the May 2025 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Main image: Rosie Sheehy, inset: with Brian Gleeson in The Brightening Air, and Chris O'Dowd in rehearsals. (Photos by Manuel Harlan)