Angelique Rockas

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Angelique Rockas
Angelique Rockas in the role of Medea
Education	University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town
Occupation	Actress: stage and film, theatre practitioner and founder of Internationalist Theatre
Years active	1978–present

Rockas as Miss Julie, and Garry Cooper as Jean in Strindberg's Miss Julie, Internationalist Theatre

Angelique Rockas is a South African-Greek, London-based actress who with her company Internationalist Theatre (initially called New Internationalist Theatre)^[1][2] has featured the performance of multi-racial and multi-national theatre productions beginning in the London of the 1980s.

Early life

Rockas was educated at St Dominic's Catholic School for Girls, Boksburg.^[3] She appeared on the front page of the Star as one of a group of debutantes raising funds for SAHETI, one of the notable Greek schools outside Greece.^[4]

Rockas participated in a 25 March Greek War of Independence Poetry Celebration with George Bizos.^[5] Bizos would serve as a role model in Angelique's founding of Internationalist Theatre.^[6]

After graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand with a BA honours degree in English literature and a major in philosophy, Rockas went on to complete an acting course at the Drama School of the University of Cape Town, under the direction of Robert Mohr.^[7][8] After obtaining her Equity card, she decided to leave South Africa for the United Kingdom.

Acting career

In London, Rockas began acting under the direction of George Eugeniou at Theatro Technis^[9] where she participated in Greek classical productions.

As a stage actress, Rockas first came to public attention for her portrayal of the roles of Emma in Griselda Gambaro's The Camp, "encarna magistralmente el dificil papel de Emma", BBC Latin American Service (now BBC Mundo) and also referred to in Vogue Mexico & Latin America;^[10] Tom Vaughan of the Morning Star described her performance as "searing" and of "great power";^[11] Jenny Vaughan of Spare Rib as "stunning" and "electrifying";^[12][13] as Euripides's Medea, Ned Chaillet, writing for The Times was struck by the wrath of Medea erupting in "the dangerous passions of Angelique Rockas", and Rosemary Say of The Sunday Telegraph lauded Rockas' performance as "fiercely agile";^[14]< · Camden Scanner declares "Angelique Rockas in the central part gives us a barefoot performance of great power",;^[15] in the title role of August Strindberg's Miss Julie her portrayal impresses not only for the "huge dimensions of the character" suggested, but also "Ms Rockas' performance adds profundity and power .. most original performance", Jo Stanley of the Morning Star.^[16]

Rockas also played Io in a politically charged production of Prometheus Bound.^[17][18] She also performed under the name of Angeliki in dual language productions (Greek/English) based on improvisations about issues that touched the Greek Cypriot community, and the tragedy of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Attilas '74.^[19] The plays included Dowry with Two White Doves, Afrodite Unbound, A Revolutionary Nicknamed Roosevelt, Ethnikos Aravonas.^{[20] [21]} Rockas' first UK press interview about her work with George Eugeniou and Theatro Technis was with Parikiaki Haravgi(now Parikiaki) in August 1980.^[22]

Rockas performed Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's Macbeth^[23] at the Tramshed ^[24] Woolwich .

Film and television

On film, Rockas has appeared in secondary roles: the Maintenance Woman in Peter Hyams's Outland,^[25] Henrietta in The Witches directed by Nicolas Roeg, and as Nereida in Oh Babylon! directed by Costas Ferris.^[26][27]

In Greece she has played the lead role, Ms Ortiki in Thodoros Maragos's television series Emmones Idees^[28][29] with Vangelis Mourikis as Socratis.

New Theatre

In November 1980, Rockas set up the performance of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore^[30] by John Ford, and in which she played the lead part of Annabella. She financed the production herself and enlisted the then unknown Declan Donnellan to direct the play to be performed at London's Half Moon Theatre and Theatre Space. The production was designed by Nick Ormerod.^[31]

Internationalist Theatre

In April 1981, Rockas founded Internationalist Theatre to create a multi-racial and multi-national theatre company for actors living in London of any racial or national background, of any accent, performing drama classics as well as contemporary works not especially written for multi-racial and multi-national casts.^[32][33] This was first announced on 9 April 1981 on the Theatre News page (2) by the editor of The Stage, describing the company's formation "to assert a multi-racial drama policy",^[34] with their performance of the revival of The Balcony by Jean Genet.

Internationalist Theatre staged productions by dramatists including Pirandello, Genet, and Tennessee Williams who belong to "the continental, non-realistic, symbolically orientated drama of this century (20th) and..proved most uncongenial to the tunnel visioned repertoire builders" of British theatre of that period.^[35]

Rockas as Miriam, In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel

Rockas' acting work with her company^[36] included Carmen (in Genet's The Balcony);^[37] Miriam (Tennessee Williams's In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel);^[38][39][40] Tatiana in Maxim Gorky's Enemies.^[41]and Yvette (in Brecht's Mother Courage) reviewed by Julia Pascal for City Limits (magazine).^[42]

Athol Fugard joined as a member of the company's advisory board (see British Library Archives, and Greek Reporter), and is listed as such on the company's press release for their production of Mother Courage and Her Children by Brecht.^[43][44][45] Madeleine Jay in her BBC French Service (part of BBC World Service) broadcast review of The Balcony and interview with Yves Aubert the French actor in the cast asks him "Why An International/Internationalist troupe?".^[46][47]Michelene Wandor in her preview for Time Out of the performance of Griselda Gambaro's The Camp (1967 play) attests that the company is "adopting a vigorous internationalist approach to casting ".^[48] Interviews with Rockas in print and online about her work as a theatre practitioner on founding Internationalist Theatre have been published in Eleftherotypia (shut down in 2011 no digital archives available),^[49] The National Herald (Ethnikos Kyrix),^[50] Vogue Mexico & Latin America,^[51][52] Dagens Nyheter,^[53] the Cape Argus,^[54] and The Greek Reporter.^[55]

Activism

Rockas campaigned for Greece to be treated with respect by the European Union;^[56] for women's educational and financial rights; and is a polemicist against war.^[57][58]

Personal life

Rockas is an Orthodox Christian, in her Hellenism.net interview she refers to "the laic side of my great Orthodox religion". To commemorate the death of her mother Stavroula Kotsaki Rockas, she commissioned an Orthodox mural of the Theotokos and the Christ Child, located above the Iconostasis in the village church of Kalamara, in the province of Messinia, in Greece, the birthplace of her mother.^[59][60]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angelique Rockas.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Angelique Rockas

• Angelique Rockas on IMDb
• Angelique Rockas on the British Film Institute website
• Angelique Rockas Vogue Mexico & Latin AmericaInterview: Una Actirz Multiplicada
• Angelique Rockas The South African Interview: Bold Theatre Pioneer, Editor Heather Walker
• Angelique Rockas South African Actress.