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Sarah Maria Lafferty
Sarah Maria Lafferty is an actress, writer & producer based in Dublin. She was born in Sligo, but grew up in Mayo. Sarah co-founded and runs Felix Culpa Theatre Company, while her agent is Geraldine Dunne of Centre Stage Agency.
Sarah is the writer, star and co-producer of "The Fringe Experience". This feature documentary follows Sarah as she launches her new show at the biggest arts festival in the world. In his directorial debut, Hans-Peter Beinert captures Sarah as she navigates Edinburgh Fringe and then brings her show back to Dublin. This is a unique insight into fringe theatre.
At the 78th Edinburgh Fringe, Sarah wrote, produced and starred in her play, "How to Become a Movie Star?" For the 21-show run, the play received 4-star reviews from One4Review, The Irish Echo & Kat Masterson, while The Reviews Hub gave a 4½-star review, and Fringe Review gave a 'Highly Recommended Show' rating. The Irish première was at The Dot theatre and all 4 nights sold out.
At the 76th Edinburgh Fringe, she co-produced and starred in Derek Murphy's play, "The Bad Daters" alongside Brian Gallagher. The show received 5-stars from 'The Reviews Hub' while 'Mumble Theatre' & 'British Theatre Guide' awarded 4-stars. The ticket sales were over 93% for the 21 shows. Afterwards, there was a Dublin tour which included the Viking, Civic & Axis theatres.
At the 75th Edinburgh Fringe, Sarah produced and starred in a Brendan Ellis play called "The Woman He Lived With" for a two-week run which got a feature in The Scottish Sun. It received 4-star reviews from One4Review and FringeBiscuit, while it was selected by The National as a top-20 'must see' show. The Irish première was at Slattery's in Dublin and both nights sold out.
Her breakthrough TV role was as nurse Aoife de Búrca in Martin Dwan's docudrama on RTÉ 1 called "Seven Women". On CBS, Sarah played Tonya McKinley in season 3, episode 15 of "Bloodline Detectives". On BBC for the Travel Show, she spoke at Sweny's Pharmacy about the 100th anniversary of Ulysses. Sarah co-produced and starred in a Jason Figgis short film called "In Our Day" which was officially selected at the 14th Waterford Film Festival.
As part of a nationwide tour, Sarah narrated the world première of Kathy Fahey’s original music & dance extravaganza called "Fáinne Óir" to a sell-out crowd of 1,200 people at the Royal Theatre in Castlebar. At the Smock Alley theatre, Sarah starred and produced a sell-out show of Derek Murphy's play, "Inside Danny's Box" which also starred Úna Crawford, John Cronin, Rex Ryan and Bryan Murray. At Avatar studio, she co-starred in a voice-over project which was written and directed by Maureen Selwood. As a member of the Players Society in Trinity College, Sarah performed regularly at the Beckett Theatre. During this time, she also co-founded Felix Culpa Theatre Company with Annie Murphy which produced six sell-out shows of Enda Walsh's "Sucking Dublin" at the New Theatre.
In New York on Broadway, Sarah narrated the US première of Kathy Fahey’s original music & dance extravaganza called "Fáinne Óir" to a sell-out crowd of 800 people at Symphony Space. Sarah also acted Off-Broadway, where she starred with Zach Gaffin in the Cell Theatre, and she acted alongside Maria Deasy in Bar Thalia. At Ripley-Grier studios, she starred with Gary Gregg in John Kearns’ play, "Boann and the Well of Wisdom". Sarah played 'Hanna Sheehy Skeffington' in a one-woman show called "Reminiscences of an Irish Suffragette" which was produced by Fallen Angel and directed by Aedín Moloney.
In London, Sarah studied acting at the London School of Dramatic Art. She made her West End debut in Adam Meggido's "Some Voices" at the Soho Theatre, while she later played 'Carla' in Martin Derbyshire's "The History of Cardenio" at the Courtyard Theatre. During this time, Sarah was the Irish World's theatre critic and she reviewed premières of the esteemed Peter Brook, Caryl Churchill and Martin McDonagh. She also interviewed 'Olivier' and 'Tony' winning actor Jim Norton and IFTA winning director John Crowley.
Back in Ireland, Sarah acted alongside Jack Walsh in "A play on Ulysses" in Blackrock which was directed by Nastaise Leddy and Iris Park to celebrate Bloomsday. At Electric picnic, she acted in Derek Murphy's play "Dyin' for it" which was produced by John Kearns. Sarah's first ever role was at the age of seven as Princess Elizabeth in an Irene Fleming production at the Hawk's Well theatre in Sligo. When she moved to Mayo, Sarah got to work with acclaimed playwright Seosamh Mac Gabhann and she was the lead actress in four All-Ireland winning Irish language productions at the Mullingar Arts Centre and at an Taibhdhearc. For the play "Páistí ar Strae", Sarah won the Actor of the Day award at an Cumann Scoildrámaíochta.
Sarah is a member of the ADEI (Association for Drama in Education in Ireland) and she is on the educational advisory board of the Ark Theatre in Dublin.
