Pamela Rabe
Pamela Rabe (born Pamela June Koropatnick, 30 April 1959) is a Canadian–Australian actress and theatre director. A graduate of the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, Rabe is best known for her appearances in the Australian films Sirens, Cosi, Paradise Road and for starring as Joan Ferguson in the television prison drama series Wentworth.
Pamela Rabe | |
---|---|
Born | Pamela June Koropatnick 30 April 1959 Oakville, Ontario, Canada |
Nationality | Canadian–Australian |
Occupation | Actress, Director |
Years active | 1981–present (film, theatre & television) |
Notable work | Sirens (1994) Così (1996) Paradise Road (1997) The Well (1997) Wentworth (TV 2014-present) |
Height | 183 cm (6 ft 0 in) |
Spouse(s) | |
Awards | AACTA Award — The Well AACTA Award — Wentworth See all awards |
Early life
Rabe was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1959. The seventh of eight children, she graduated from the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver.[1]
Rabe relocated to Australia in 1983 with Australian director, Roger Hodgman. They were married in 1984.
Career
Theatre
Rabe is a prolific contributor to theatrical life in her adopted country in acting and directing, across a wide range of genres - musicals, comedy and drama. With the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Chekhov, Brecht, Noel Coward, Patrick White and David Mamet forming just a part of her theatrical CV, Rabe has played leading roles on the Australian stage in some of the greatest stage plays of our time. She is a long-standing collaborator with the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was once described by Melbourne theatre critic Alison Croggon as having the sort of presence that "makes shy people swallow hard and lesser mortals involuntarily bow". [2]
Some of her other high-profile acting roles include Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at Belvoir, for which she won a Helpmann Award, Nora Boyle in Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla, for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress,[3] Richard III in the Sydney Theatre Company production of The War Of The Roses, which also starred Cate Blanchett as Richard II.[4][5] and Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses alongside Hugo Weaving.
In 2005 she performed a challenging experimental Croatian play called Woman-Bomb.[6] where she inhabited the body and mind of a suicide bomber. Rabe was the sole performer in a production that lasted eight hours.
In 2010 she starred in the Melbourne stage production of David Mamet's play Boston Marriage.[7]
In 2012 Rabe received a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical for her performance in Grey Gardens for The Production Company. In July 2015 she won a second Helpmann Award, this time for Best Female Actor in a Play, for her performance in The Glass Menagerie.
In late 2017 Rabe played the roles of Helene Alving in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre, Mrs. Higgins in the Julie Andrews directed revival of My Fair Lady (replacing Robyn Nevin), and the role of Mary in Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary, at The Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. In 2018, Rabe starred in Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children at the Melbourne Theatre Company.[8]
Rabe turned her hand to theatre directing in 2009, and has directed several high-profile plays for Australian theatre companies, including the Australian premiere of In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), and Elling for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was nominated for a Green Room Award for best direction on both occasions. In 2012 Rabe was invited to be a member of the guest triumvirate who programmed the Melbourne Theatre Company season for that year.
Film
In 1989, Rabe made her film debut with a minor role in Against the Innocent. Her second role came in 1993 when she was cast in John Duigan's romantic comedy, Sirens with Hugh Grant and Sam Neill. Rabe's first leading role was in the 1995 film Vacant Possession. Following this, she appeared in Così with Toni Collette, Lust and Revenge directed by Paul Cox, and Paradise Road, a film starring Glenn Close set during World War II. In 1997, Rabe was cast in the leading role of Hester in “The Well (1997 film)”, an adaptation of Elizabeth Jolley's novel The Well, for which she received an [Australian Film Institute Awards|Australian Film Institute Award]] for Best Actress.[1] More recently she appeared in the Jasmila Žbanić drama film For Those Who Can Tell No Tales and she narrated the upcoming 2015 film, Symphony of the Wild.
Television
Rabe has appeared on several Australian television series throughout her career. Her first was in 1990, when she received a guest role in the soap opera A Country Practice. Then she featured in a number of recurring roles including the family series Ocean Girl and The Secret Life of Us and a lead role in the short lived series Mercury.
In September 2013 it was announced that Rabe would be cast in the Australian prison drama series, Wentworth, a reimagining of the classic Network Ten soap opera Prisoner. She joined Wentworth in Season Two as sadistic prison governor Joan "The Freak" Ferguson, a role originally played by Maggie Kirkpatrick in Prisoner. Rabe as Ferguson is seen as intimidating and evil and often uses a clever, non-physical approach in a way to control and manipulate the prisoners and officers alike, with little need for violence, unlike Kirkpatrick's character, who mainly resorted to violence. Rabe appeared in both Season Two and Season Three in a leading role, as it was finally discovered that Ferguson is unstable and her crimes are revealed. Rabe returned as Ferguson in the fourth season in 2016, in which she becomes a prisoner at Wentworth and uses strategies to get herself out of prison for good. Rabe reprised her role for the fifth season of Wentworth in 2017, in which Ferguson remains incarcerated for killing inmate Bea Smith (Danielle Cormack) at the end of the previous season. At the end of the fifth season, Ferguson was buried alive and her fate was left unknown.[9] It was previously unknown if Rabe would reprise her role as Joan Ferguson for the sixth season; however, she began appearing from episode seven of the twelve-part season, as a figment of character Will Jackson's imagination. Although the character was presumed dead, it is finally revealed in the season seven finale that she is alive and will return for the eighth season in 2020.
In 2017, Rabe played the role of Maude in the 6-part TV series Fucking Adelaide, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2017.[10][11]
Other work
Rabe served on the board of the Australian Film Institute from 1999–2002[12] and is a former member of the Board of Directors of NIDA.
Filmography
Film
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1989 | Against the Innocent | American Woman | |
1993 | Sirens | Rose Lindsay | |
1995 | Vacant Possession | Tessa | |
1996 | Così | Ruth | |
1996 | Lust and Revenge | Obnoxious Woman | |
1997 | Paradise Road | Mrs. Tippler | |
1997 | The Well | Hester | |
2004 | The Boy Who Feeds Cats | Narrator | Voice; short film |
2013 | For Those Who Can Tell No Tales | Mum | |
2015 | Symphony of the Wild | Narrator | Voice |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985 | A Single Life | Margaret Bennett | Television film |
1987 | Nancy Wake | Madeleine | Miniseries |
1990 | A Country Practice | Marnie Rose | Season 10 - "My Sister's Keeper" (Parts 1 & 2) |
1993 | Seven Deadly Sins | Greed | Miniseries |
1995 | Ocean Girl | Commander Byrne | Recurring role; Season 2 - 13 episodes |
1996 | Mercury | Claire Bannister | Leading role; Season 1 - 13 episodes |
1996 | The Bite | Samira Nazib | Miniseries |
1997 | Frontier | Rosa Campbell Praed | Miniseries |
2001 | Stingers | Eve Reisner | Episode: "True Colours" |
2003 | The Secret Life of Us | Luciana | Recurring role; Season 3 - 9 episodes |
2003 | CrashBurn | Andy | Episode: "Seven Letters or Less" |
2005 | Holly's Heroes | Mrs. Rocacelli | 3 episodes |
2014– | Wentworth | Joan Ferguson | Leading role Seasons 2–5, 8– Special guest role Season 6−7 |
2017 | Fucking Adelaide | Maude | All 6 episodes |
2019 | The Hunting | Principal De Rossi | Miniseries |
Awards and nominations
Year | Format | Association | Category | Nominated work | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1988 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Actress in a Leading Role (Drama)[13] | Gertrude Stein and a Companion | Won |
1991 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Female Actor in a Featured Role (Music Theatre) | The Wizard of Oz | Won |
1993 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Actress in a Leading Role (Drama)[14] | Lost in Yonkers | Won |
1997 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Female Actor in a Featured Role (Music Theatre) | A Little Night Music | Nominated |
1997 | Film | AACTA Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role | The Well | Won |
1997 | Film | Stockholm International Film Festival | Best Actress | Won | |
1998 | Film | Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards | Best Actor - Female | Nominated | |
2002 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Musical | The Wizard of Oz | Nominated |
2002 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Female Actor in a Featured Role (Music Theatre) | Nominated | |
2005 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Play | Dinner | Nominated |
2007 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Play | Mother Courage and Her Children | Nominated |
2008 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Best Female Performer - Theatre (Companies) | The Season At Sarsaparilla | Won |
2009 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Play | War of the Roses | Nominated |
2011 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Direction - Theatre (Companies) | In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play) | Nominated |
2011 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Female Artist Leading Role - Music Theatre | Grey Gardens | Won |
2012 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Musical | Won | |
2012 | Theatre | Green Room Award | Direction - Theatre (Companies) | Elling | Nominated |
2015 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Play | The Glass Menagerie | Won |
2015 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Supporting Role – Play | Beckett Triptych Footfalls | Nominated |
2015 | Television | Astra Award | Most Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor | Wentworth (Season Two) | Nominated |
2015 | Television | AACTA Awards | Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama | Wentworth (Season Three) | Won |
2016 | Television | Logie Awards | Most Outstanding Actress | Wentworth (Season Three) | Nominated |
2016 | Television | AACTA Awards | Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama | Wentworth (Season Four) | Nominated |
2017 | Television | AACTA Awards | Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama | Wentworth (Season Five) | Nominated |
2018 | Television | Logie Awards | Most Outstanding Actress | Wentworth (Season Five) | Won |
2018 | Theatre | Helpmann Award | Best Female Actor in a Play | The Children | Won |
References
- "Pamela Rabe". 16th Street. Archived from the original on 23 February 2011.
- http://theatrenotes.blogspot.co.uk/2004/08/dinner.html
- "Sarsaparilla steals the Melbourne Limelight". Sydney Morning Herald. 21 April 2009. Retrieved 19 December 2009.
- "Richard III, thy name is woman". Sydney Morning Herald. 5 January 2009. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- Lalak, Alex (19 January 2009). "Review: The War Of The Roses, starring Cate Blanchett". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- Womb with a view
- Croggon, Alison (11 June 2010). "Pamela Rabe on a roll as a woman behaving badly". The Australian. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/sarah-peirse-in-mtcs-the-children-a-nightmare-vision-of-the-quake-to-come-20180118-h0k624.html
- Adams, Cameron (21 June 2017). "Wentworth spoiler warning: will The Freak escape being buried alive?". News.com.au. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
- Daniela Frangos (2 October 2017). "Fucking Adelaide to Premiere at Adelaide Film Festival". Broadsheet Adelaide. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- "Fucking Adelaide". IMDB. Retrieved 4 June 2018.
- "National Institute of Dramatic Art". 2010. Retrieved 24 August 2010.
- "Promptings". Saturday Extra. The Age. 27 February 1988. p. 9.
- "Playbox tops stage awards". The Age. 18 February 1993. p. 14.
Further reading
- Pamela Rabe in Melbourne Magazine, 30 July 2010
- A Woman of Substance, The Age, 23 April 1994
External links
- Pamela Rabe on IMDb