Career
In 1999, she was involved in a near-fatal car crash where she suffered a head fracture, her pelvis was fractured in six places, her hips displaced and the tendons in her hand were shredded. It was months before she could walk again, and she was hospitalized for a year; she still has a metal plate in her pelvis . The accident encouraged her to follow her dream of singing and she performed her first show after the accident while still in crutches.
O'Sullivan is not a classically trained singer or musician, although she plays piano, and has stated that this stopped her from having the confidence to begin a singing career for many years. In her early career she got around this lack of experience by working with musicians who were able to adapt to her singing style, which focuses more on acting, emotion and 'light and shade', than technique or strict tempo.
O'Sullivan has performed in sell-out seasons in Ireland, New York, the UK, Australia (including the Sydney Opera House) with her award winning shows and also with the ensemble off Broadway hit show and Olivier Award winning 'La Clique' (known as 'Absinthe' in America and later as La Soiree in UK). She has performed her 'Dark Angel' show for a six week West End run at the Apollo Theatre, the Roundhouse, and Royal Festival Hall and appeared in Hal Willner's Rogues Gallery with Tim Robbins, Marianne Faithfull, Sarah Blasko and Todd Rundgren at the Sydney Festival 2010. In December 2009 she supported Jools Holland on tour including the Royal Albert Hall.
After being spotted by Ewen Bremner (Spud from Trainspotting) in La Clique in The Famous Spiegeltent, O'Sullivan co-starred as the vaudeville star Jane in the film Mrs Henderson Presents, directed by Stephan Frears, opposite Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins. She and Will Young are also on the soundtrack to the movie. She has appeared on stage with Damien Rice, Jack L, Duke Special, Tim Robbins and Shane MacGowan.
As much storyteller as singer, Camille has received acclaim for her dark dramatic interpretations of the songs of Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Dillie Keane, Kurt Weill, David Bowie, and Radiohead. The productions 'La Fille Du Cirque','The Dark Angel' and 'Chameleon" were self-directed with the emphasis on inhabiting the character of each story, revealing different aspects emotionally dark and light, lending to her chameleon like quality on stage. In her early days Camille concentrated on more traditional 'narrative storytelling' with Eisler, Weill and chanteuse fayre Edith Piaf and says that she may have alienated some by making the switch to interpreting darker contemporary songs which originated, in the most part, from male artists:
“I feel it’s necessary to not just do things to please,” she says. “I sometimes worried about that in the past. I thought, ‘If I don’t want to alienate people, I shouldn’t perform difficult provocative dark songs’. But I would have given up if I’d stayed doing Dietrich and Piaf in a studied way, that cafe-cabaret version, where you’re making it easy instead of pushing yourself.”
In 1994, she performed in 'Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris' at University College, Dublin which increased her passion for Brel's work, in particular the songs Amsterdam and Next, the latter being one of the climactic moments of her Spiegletent 2007 performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and both appearing on her 'Fille Du Cirque' album.
Both of these songs are told from a male perspective, with Next ('Au Suivant') telling the story of a young soldier who loses his virginity in a 'mobile army whorehouse, gift from the army, free of cost' and is haunted for the remainder of his life both by the horrors of war and by his disgust for the sexual experiences. However, O'Sullivan is not deterred from performing them, commenting that she sings them in the lowest key possible for her voice in order to retain the drama and tone of the originals, while finding a character within the song that she can inhabit, such as the prostitute and sailor in 'Amsterdam'.
In 2007 Camille played 'Beggar Woman' in the 'Best Opera Production' of 2007 (Irish Times Irish Theatre Award), Sondheim's 'Sweeney Todd' at The Gate Theatre, Dublin (“This production is a miracle…gripping and musically brilliant” Guardian). In 2011 she starred in, and co-created (with director Elizabeth Freestone and long term musical collaborator Feargal Murray), a one woman adaptation of Shakespeare's narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece, which was performed at the Swan Theatre, Stratford upon Avon. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, the poem is a harrowing account, in which Camille portrays both protagonist and victim. Original music was written by O'Sullivan and Murray. In Autumn 2011 she starred opposite Lorcan Crannitch in The Lulu House for the Dublin Theatre Festival, directed by Selina Cartmell.
Festival appearances include the Acoustic Tent at Glastonbury Festival 2008, Latitude Festival 2009 and 2011, and the Tent Stage (as headline) at the London Feis 2011. She has performed on Later With Jools 2008 and was interviewed by David Frost 2010. Tribute performances include Barbican's Nick Drake tribute, Way to Blue 2009 with Martha Wainright, Vashti Bunyan, Harper Simon, Stuart Murdoch and Blur's Graham Coxon, Barbican's Brel evening with Marc Almond, Momus, Arno and Arthur H. She is regularly one of the biggest sellers at the Edinburgh Fringe with 4 week runs in some of the biggest venues.
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