Pamela Rabe
Encyclopedia
Pamela Rabe is a Canadian / Australian stage
, television
and film
actor
. A graduate from the Playhouse Acting School, in Vancouver
, Pamela Rabe is one of Australia’s most highly regarded and awarded actors. She is best known for her appearances in the films Cosi
, Sirens
and Paradise Road. She was born in Ontario, Canada, though she has long resided and worked in Australia
.
's The Season At Sarsaparilla, for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress, and Richard III
in the Sydney Theatre Company
production of The War Of The Roses, which also starred Cate Blanchett
as Richard II
.
Rabe also starred with Miranda Otto
in the 1997 film adaptation
of Elizabeth Jolley
's novel The Well
, for which she received an AFI
Award
for Best Actress.
In 2005 she performed a challenging, Croatian play called Woman-Bomb.
In 2010 she starred in the Melbourne
stage production of David Mamet
's play Boston Marriage
.
Ms Rabe served on the board of the Australian Film Institute from 1999-2002 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of NIDA
.
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
and film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. A graduate from the Playhouse Acting School, in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Pamela Rabe is one of Australia’s most highly regarded and awarded actors. She is best known for her appearances in the films Cosi
Cosi (film)
Cosi is a 1996 Australian comedy-drama-musical film directed by Mark Joffe. Louis Nowra wrote both the screenplay and the play it is based on.-Plot summary:...
, Sirens
Sirens (film)
Sirens is a 1993 film, written and directed by John Duigan, and set in Australia between the two World Wars.Sirens, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bitter Moon—all released in the U.S...
and Paradise Road. She was born in Ontario, Canada, though she has long resided and worked in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Career
Rabe is a prolific contributor to theatrical life in her adopted country. Some of her high-profile roles include Nora Boyle in Patrick WhitePatrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White , an Australian author, is widely regarded as an important English-language novelist of the 20th century. From 1935 until his death, he published 12 novels, two short-story collections and eight plays.White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, shifting narrative...
's The Season At Sarsaparilla, for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress, and Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
in the Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
production of The War Of The Roses, which also starred Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Élise "Cate" Blanchett is an Australian actress. She came to international attention for her role as Elizabeth I of England in the 1998 biopic film Elizabeth, for which she won British Academy of Film and Television Arts and Golden Globe Awards, and earned her first Academy Award...
as Richard II
Richard II (play)
King Richard the Second is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to be written in approximately 1595. It is based on the life of King Richard II of England and is the first part of a tetralogy, referred to by some scholars as the Henriad, followed by three plays concerning Richard's...
.
Rabe also starred with Miranda Otto
Miranda Otto
Miranda Otto is an Australian actress. The daughter of actors Lindsay and Barry Otto and the sister of actress Gracie Otto, she began acting at age eighteen, and has performed in a variety of independent and major studio films....
in the 1997 film adaptation
The Well (1997 film)
The Well is a 1997 Australian film, based on the novel by Elizabeth Jolley.-Synopsis:The film is about a young girl named Katherine and her older friend Hester who live on an isolated farm run by Hester and her father Francis. Katherine works as a maid and wants to leave because there's too much work...
of Elizabeth Jolley
Elizabeth Jolley
Monica Elizabeth Jolley AO was an English-born writer who settled in Western Australia in the late 1950s. She was 53 when her first book was published, and she went on to publish fifteen novels , four short story collections and three non-fiction books, publishing well into her 70s and achieving...
's novel The Well
The Well (novel)
The Well is a Miles Franklin Award winning novel by Australian author Elizabeth Jolley. It tells the story of two women, Hester and her young ward Katherine, and their relationship with one another. Hester, who has lived alone on a farm with her father for many years, is possessive of the much...
, for which she received an AFI
Australian Film Institute
The Australian Film Institute was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry...
Award
Australian Film Institute Awards
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,...
for Best Actress.
In 2005 she performed a challenging, Croatian play called Woman-Bomb.
In 2010 she starred in the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
stage production of David Mamet
David Mamet
David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...
's play Boston Marriage
Boston marriage
Boston marriage as a term is said to have been in use in New England in the decades spanning the late 19th and early 20th centuries to describe two women living together, independent of financial support from a man. The term was little known until the debut in 2000 of the David Mamet play of the...
.
Ms Rabe served on the board of the Australian Film Institute from 1999-2002 and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of NIDA
National Institute of Dramatic Art
The National Institute of Dramatic Art is an Australian national training institute for students of theatre, film, and television, based in the Sydney suburb of Kensington. It is supported by the federal Office for the Arts, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. NIDA is located adjacent...
.
Films
- Against the Innocent (1989) .... American woman
- SirensSirens (film)Sirens is a 1993 film, written and directed by John Duigan, and set in Australia between the two World Wars.Sirens, along with Four Weddings and a Funeral and Bitter Moon—all released in the U.S...
(1993) .... Rose Lindsay - Vacant PossessionVacant PossessionVacant Possession is also the title to a second novel by British author Hilary Mantel, first published in 1986 by Chatto and Windus. It continues the story from her first novel Every Day is Mother's Day and is set some ten years later with the same cast of characters.-The Novel:Muriel Axon has been...
(1995) .... Tessa - Cosi (1996)Cosi (film)Cosi is a 1996 Australian comedy-drama-musical film directed by Mark Joffe. Louis Nowra wrote both the screenplay and the play it is based on.-Plot summary:...
.... Ruth - Lust and Revenge (1996) .... Obnoxious Woman
- Paradise Road (1997) .... Mrs. Tippler
- The WellThe Well (1997 film)The Well is a 1997 Australian film, based on the novel by Elizabeth Jolley.-Synopsis:The film is about a young girl named Katherine and her older friend Hester who live on an isolated farm run by Hester and her father Francis. Katherine works as a maid and wants to leave because there's too much work...
(1997) .... Hester - The Boy Who Feeds Cats (2004) .... Narrator
TV
- A Single Life (1986).... Margaret Bennett
- Nancy WakeNancy WakeNancy Grace Augusta Wake, AC, GM , served as a British agent during the later part of World War II. She became a leading figure in the maquis groups of the French Resistance and was one of the Allies' most decorated servicewomen of the war.-Early life:Born in Roseneath, Wellington, New Zealand in...
(1987).... Madeleine - A Country PracticeA Country PracticeA Country Practice is an Australian television drama series. One of the longest-running of its kind, produced by James Davern of JNP Productions, it ran on the Seven Network for 1,058 episodes from 18 November 1981 to 22 November 1993. It was produced in ATN-7's production facility at Epping,...
(1990) .... Marnie Rose - The Leaving of LiverpoolThe Leaving of LiverpoolThe Leaving of Liverpool is a 1992 television mini-series, an Australian–British co-production between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and British Broadcasting Corporation...
(1992) .... Mrs. Lang - Seven Deadly SinsSeven deadly sinsThe 7 Deadly Sins, also known as the Capital Vices or Cardinal Sins, is a classification of objectionable vices that have been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct followers concerning fallen humanity's tendency to sin...
(1993) .... Greed - Ocean GirlOcean GirlOcean Girl is an Australian science fiction TV series aimed for family audiences and starring Marzena Godecki as the lead character...
(1995) .... Commander Byrne - The BiteThe Biteaka Bait is a Japanese pink film directed by Hiroshi Mukai, credited as "Kan Mukai" in the international English-dubbed version, and starring Senjo Ichiriki and Michiko Shiroyami.-Synopsis:...
(1996) .... Samira Nazib - Mercury (1996) .... Clare Bannister
- FrontierFrontierA frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
(1997) .... Rosa Campbell Praed - StingersStingersStingers was an Australian police drama television series. It ran for eight seasons on the Nine Network before it was canceled in late 2004 due to declining ratings and the late timeslot Channel Nine gave the program...
(2001) .... Eve Reisner - The Secret Life of UsThe Secret Life of UsThe Secret Life of Us was a television drama series set in the beachside suburb of St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia. The series was produced by Southern Star Entertainment and screened in Australia from 2001 to 2005 on Network Ten and on Channel 4 in the UK...
(2003) .... Luciana - CrashBurnCrashBurnCrashBurn was an Australian 13-part drama series airing on Network Ten, about surviving long-term relationships in an age where multiple partners and multiple orgasms are considered a birthright....
(2003) .... Andy - Holly's HeroesHolly's HeroesHolly's Heroes is a children's drama series produced as a collaboration between the Nine Network in Australia and TVNZ in New Zealand. It was produced as a series of 26 episodes and first screened in 2005.-Plot summary:...
(2005) .... Mrs. Rocacelli
Further reading
- Pamela Rabe in Melbourne Magazine, July 30, 2010
- A Woman of Substance, The Age, April 23, 1994
External links
- IMDb - Pamela Rabe