Bandon singer Alison in London stage play with star of The Wire

BANDON born soprano singer and actress Alison Arnopp is getting used to the hustle and bustle of the West End in London and working alongside the star of The Wire TV series.

The 29-year-old former UCC graduate from Knockbrogan is currently appearing as Julie in a production of Les Liaisons Dangereuse at The Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. 

Alison stars alongside the heart-throb from hit TV shows The Affair and The Wire, Dominic West, Irish actor Elaine Cassidy and Janet McTeer and the play has had sold-out shows since it opened in December and is due to finish in two weeks’ time.

‘My family came over for the preview at the beginning of December so that was pretty special to have them here,’ Alison told The Southern Star.

‘We also had a live performance last week where the play was broadcast to selected cinemas throughout the world as part of the National Theatre Live programme. That was quite terrifying in one way as we were being filmed live, but in another way we weren’t doing anything different from one of our normal nights.’

Unfortunately, there were no screenings of the performance taking place in Cork cinemas, so Alison’s family made the trip down to Waterford to see her up on the big screen.

Alison made the move to London over five years ago and hasn’t looked back since. She studied classical singing at the Royal College of Music and also musical theatre at the Royal Academy of Music and has both theatre and screen credits to her name. In 2013 Alison was awarded third prize in the international Lotte Lenya Singing Competition, the criteria which spans opera and classic and contemporary American musical theatre repertoire.

Last year was a busy one for Alison as she played the lead role as Dusty Springfield in the Charing Cross Theatre production of Dusty. 

The show ran from August to mid November and she also got time to record three songs for a CD called Suit Suite which was released in December.

‘It’s been a busy time and I won’t be leaving anytime soon. Once this production finishes I have another couple of auditions lined up so I will be kept busy and I will hopefully be back in Cork for a concert in a few months too,’ added Alison.