What’s it like to play the Virgin Mary? Does good writing make acting easy? And how do you screech like Eliza Doolittle? This year’s Irish Theatre Awards Best Actress nominees tell all

Amy Conroy

Amy Conroy is the only one of this year's best-actress nominees who also wrote the work she was shortlisted for. She regards Gina Devine, the main character of her Eternal Rising of the Sun, as a woman on the periphery of society. She is "a rough, tough single mother in her late 20s" whose life has been a litany of grimness. She enrols in a contemporary-dance class, and slowly a transformation begins. "She's one of what I call the invisible people: people who we see, make a snap decision about what they're like and then never give them another thought. I was interested in scratching at the surface, of looking at a life like that and getting to the darkness or beauty underneath."

As dance is so central to the play, Conroy decided to immerse herself in it. She used an arts bursary to take lessons with Ponydance theatre company, in Belfast. “I put myself in Gina’s position, and although I’ve done physical theatre in the past, this was about co-ordinated beauty. I could articulate it, but Gina couldn’t.”

She became very attached to Gina, and when she heard about this nomination she felt strangely proud of her. “It was a huge surprise to be nominated, and it feels like recognition for my theatre company” – HotForTheatre – “and my work as a writer. I felt proud of Gina, as I had come to think of her as a real person.”

Conroy saw several plays last year that really impressed her, including Mark O'Halloran's Trade, Colm Tóibín's Testamentand Druid's version of Big Maggie. "All of that great work was Irish, and it really informs your own work as a writer. There were a lot of dark themes, too, but it's really important to see work that's difficult to watch, as work that makes your soul soar."

Conroy, who is about to appear in her play I (Heart) Alice (Heart)I at the Peacock Theatre in Dublin, regards acting as a craft. "I think of the craft of acting as about learning. As an actor you can never think you know everything. Pretend you know nothing, and that way you will always keep trying to be better . . . Observation of the world around you is crucial. An actor has to be constantly watching and looking. It helps us to understand what we do."

Marie Mullen

The most experienced actress on the shortlist, Marie Mullen has been nominated before. The Tony-winner is nominated in this year's Irish Theatre Awards for her role as the Virgin Mary in Colm Tóibín's Testament. "Garry Hynes [of Druid] and Anne Clarke [of Landmark Productions] asked me about the role, so I read it a couple of months before I committed to it. "Mary is a figure who is always pictured at the bottom of the Cross, crying for her son, but Colm put breath and a brain into this woman. He brought her to life, which was so exciting."

Mullen has known Colm Tóibín for more than 30 years and has enjoyed watching this “smart, lovely man” progress as a writer. With so many artistic representations of the Virgin Mary, it is difficult for any actress to know how to approach such a role. “We took everything from the writing,” says Mullen, “and I loved that Colm wrote her as a woman in defiance and then added all these shades of loneliness. That was our starting point.”

Was it a daunting role? “Hugely. Not just because of the role of Mary but also because I had never performed a one-woman show. I remember leaving the house and seeing fear and terror on my face; I could feel it. I remember thinking in rehearsal, How am I going to be able to do this? When I’m in a play, I have to make an audience comfortable. I don’t care if they like me or not, once they’re comfortable. Acting alone means that all the attention is on you. You realise how much you depend on other actors, and much of the flavour of a scene comes from them.”

Playing Mary was difficult, Mullen says, “but I find that with extremely bright writers it’s always a challenge. You have to climb really high to see what they want. Tom Murphy is also one of those writers, and I love working with people like that.” (This year Mullen will be appearing in two of Murphy’s plays, also produced by Druid.)

Mullen was delighted to be nominated. “It’s so nice that things get recognised, and as performers we’re always grateful for it. I’ve been to the awards before, even when I wasn’t nominated, and there is such a benevolent and positive feeling in the room. It’s also great to see young people nominated.”

Charlie Murphy

Charlie Murphy had never auditioned for the Abbey Theatre before the role of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalioncame up. The combination of a prestigious theatre, a revered playwright and his most famous work was intimidating. "From the first time I did amateur drama, in Wexford, I was hooked. Acting was like an addiction, and I knew I didn't want to do anything else. I had grown up watching Audrey Hepburn in that role [in the film version, My Fair Lady] and was ecstatic when I got the role."

Murphy starred in the RTÉ drama Love/Hate; the Abbey gave her far more time to prepare for her role. Her approach was to start with the text. "I had real fear about all of the sounds she has to make. When I was required to do her famous squealing, it was literally just a load of vowels on the page. I wanted the performance to be about her as a person, to know that she was good enough. I tried not to overthink the idea of her going from feral to polished."

Murphy’s fears about such a big production were allayed by an experienced cast that included Risteárd Cooper, Eleanor Methven and Lorcan Cranitch. “Risteárd was there for my audition, and I was in awe of all these actors I had previously seen on stage.”

She was hugely encouraged by director Annabelle Comyn’s attitude. “She always brought it back to the text, and it was important to forget the hype around it and just go through it scene by scene.”

Does she regard acting as a craft? “Every project is unique, and as an actor you bring different things to each role. Every actor has their own approach, and I feel like I haven’t found mine yet: I’m still growing into it.”

In Wexford, her parents run a hair salon that has been the family business for 40 years. When she heard about her nomination she was helping her mother fold towels. “I was delighted, because I’ve only been three years out of college, and my dad had said to me that he’d pay if I wanted to go back to study, so hopefully with this nomination he’ll realise I’m serious about acting.”

Aisling O’Sullivan

Aisling O'Sullivan is one of Ireland's best-known actresses, thanks in no small part to her roles in the RTÉ dramas The Clinicand Raw. Last year she also starred in Carmel Winters' film Snap– and had an epiphany after seeing a production of John B Keane's The Field. "I was so blown away by it and by Keane's writing," says O'Sullivan. "It also made me a bit ashamed that, as a Kerrywoman, I had never paid much attention to his work. A while later I talked to Garry Hynes about Big Maggie, and when I was offered the lead role I jumped at it."

Maggie is one of Irish theatre’s greatest matriarchs. O’Sullivan was fascinated by her. “When I read the play there was a lot I didn’t understand. How could someone who was so bright and so cunning have been married to this man who treated her so badly? How could she be so trapped in this marriage?”

O’Sullivan researched the role by “looking at what life was like for women in Ireland in 1969”. She also looked back at Oscar-winning actresses of the 1960s and found that “revolutionary” figures such as Anne Bancroft and Maggie Smith had won. Then she “channelled” the Italian actress Anna Magnani when she was playing Maggie.

O’Sullivan says she was careful not to overprepare. “I knew that that family dynamic was important and that the life of the piece would hinge on the connection between the actors. I had a very healthy respect for the role of Maggie. Garry could see me in it, and I trust her and her taste.”

Is it a difficult role? “I’m not sure. Once the characters come, you can’t remember how difficult it was to get them there. Keane’s writing and lines are so great that you’ve got a safety net – there’s a support structure built inside the play.”

O’Sullivan says theatre is a unique discipline. “Different things get flexed within the different media, but theatre is much more athletic [than television or film roles]. It’s about things like breath and posture, but there’s a freedom in that athleticism.”

How does she feel about the nomination? “It’s a huge honour, no matter what. It’s great.”