FRA Fee, musician and star of musical theatre and film, is going back to his roots and polishing up his trusty tin whistle – “I might even get out the shruti box” – for a special fundraising ‘Seisiun’ in Belfast.
The Tyrone-born, London-based stage and film actor is excited to join friends and family for a trad and musical theatre evening at the Lyric Theatre in support of its education programme in schools and community groups across Northern Ireland.
Friends lending their talents for the evening of music, storytelling and craic include Simon Callow, co-actor in Marvel’s Hawkeye Disney Plus series, Les Miserables fellow performer Alistair Brammer, singer Brian Kennedy, musician Duke Special and Fee’s partner, Declan Bennett, who played the lead role of Guy in the West End production of Once, the musical.
Also appearing on stage will be Killian Donnelly – “another Les Mis mate” – as well as his best friend from drama school, School of Rock’s Laura Tebbutt (who has just finished playing Miranda Hillard in a new musical version of Mrs Doubtfire), violinist Denice Doyle, baritone Karl McGuckin (Proms in the Park) and acclaimed Irish flautist, Trudy O’Donnell with her brother Cian on guitar.
“It’s going to be great and we are aiming to re-create that 'seisun' vibe of a gathering of friends at the pub for music, singing and storytelling,” Fee enthuses, speaking on the phone from his home in the rolling hills of Oxfordshire which he shares with Bennett and their new dog, a pizza-loving boxer called Ace.
“The musicians are wonderful – a lot of them are folk and trad-based, so it’s a real mix of the music that I grew up with, which is primarily folk music, mixed in with lots of songs from the various productions I’ve been in.
“It is remarkable, really, because the two styles, traditional Irish folk and musical theatre, don’t ‘on the page’ work – you wouldn’t think there would be a world where they would co-exist side by side – but I’m going to make it happen.”
Stepping easily into the shoes of host as well as performer is a role he is well used to, of course, having played Emcee in the 2022 London revival of Cabaret until taking his final bow at the Kit Kat Club last October.
“I was tired,” he says, simply. “I did my big stint in Cabaret for six months, but after six months I was ready to do something completely different. I took over from Eddie Redmayne, which was such an honour, as I know Eddie from the Les Mis movie (2012), but while the role was wonderful and invigorating, it was also quite intense.
“You’re exhausted, but the moment you get up there on stage, of course, this energy comes from somewhere and suddenly there is electricity in the room.
"I was lucky, though, that when I finished, something completely different did come along and I found myself shooting a film in LA called Rebel Moon which is going to be out on Netflix at the end of this year. It’s a new sci-fi fantasy adventure story from Zack Snyder who is a wonderful filmmaker, a wonderful visionary, and this new project was super-fun.”
Musical theatre having been his speciality – he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in London after a degree in music from the University of Manchester – he feels lucky to have been able to diversify and stretch his acting muscles in various directions.
His award-winning turn in Sam Mendes's The Ferryman – set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles – was a seminal moment, while playing Owen alongside Ciarán Hinds in Brian Friel’s timeless Translations at the National Theatre in 2019 was another flash of “connection” for the actor who first cut his thespian teeth in community theatre in Coalisland.
“Acting always had a draw for me and I recently found a programme of a local production of The Sound of Music that I did years ago with Craic Theatre in Coalisland,” says Fee – also an accomplished musician, playing piano, flute and tin whistle.
“Alongside a short bio – I played Kurt von Trapp – it says, ‘Fra wants to be an actor when he grows up’. That was my first taste of being on stage and I just fell completely in love with it.
“I have been very lucky that everything I have done seems to have shifted things around in a way, but I have to say The Ferryman, an Irish play by Jez Butterworth, was a hugely significant moment for me. It started at the Royal Court, then it went to the West End and then we went to Broadway. It all felt quite personal because it was something set close to home and yet here we were doing it in England and New York. If I had to choose one moment where I felt, ‘Okay, this is a big deal’, that would be it.”
That role led to the plum part of Kazi, a villain in the Marvel spin-off series, Hawkeye, which premiered in 2021 and which in turn led to Scrooge: A Christmas Carol, an animated film for Netflix in which he joined a starry voice cast, including Oscar winner Olivia Colman.
Since landing his big break as Courfeyrac in Tom Hooper’s 2012 big-budget 2012 film adaptation of Les Miserables, the roles have come thick and fast for Fee, now in his mid-thirties but still wearing his trademark dishevelled dark curls with boyish abandon.
Among them, his portrayal as Hench in the 2021 Cinderella reboot and as exotic concert pianist Jim in Sophie Hyde’s 2019 Dublin-based Indie movie, Animals, along with various stage roles of note: Amiens in As You Like It at the National Theatre, London (2016) and the romantic lead in Romeo and Juliet at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, in 2015.
“I absolutely love to stretch myself, but it is all storytelling at the end of the day,” observes the actor who recently spoke out about being a gay performer and how the pretence of drama helped him when growing up in Northern Ireland.
“I think perhaps, when I was younger, as a closeted teen or whatever, I maybe unconsciously used the acting as some sort of shield,” he explains.
“Looking back, I can see now why I was attracted to performance because you are just able to distance yourself from your own self for a while and it feels protective and distracting and celebratory – all of those things. I am certainly very proud and happy now to be living authentically and I hope younger kids don’t feel the need to hide away from themselves so much.”
Seisun will be a total celebration, concludes Fee, who might even break into his favourite trad party piece, My Lagan Love, at the Lyric event, alongside some West End favourites from Les Mis and Cabaret.
“As Irish people, we come from such a rich lineage of storytelling and literary culture and music I'm just very proud to be part of that," he says. "That’s what I want Seisun to represent – I want it to be a celebration of the power of storytelling and bringing people together."
Seisiun featuring Fra Fee and guests is at the Lyric Theatre on Sunday March 12. lyrictheatre.co.uk
