Read more about the article Wentworth’s Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson actress Pamela Rabe stars as Jesus’ mother in solo show

Wentworth’s Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson actress Pamela Rabe stars as Jesus’ mother in solo show

AS JOAN “The Freak” Ferguson in hit TV series Wentworth, Pamela Rabe plays Australia’s most-hated villain.

But in her solo show, the Malthouse Theatre’s production of The Testament of Mary, the acclaimed actress takes on the controversial role of the mother of Jesus.

“They’re not that different in the end,” Rabe said.

“As an actor you’re exploring a human being, the humanity of a character and doing your best to bring that story alive for an audience.

“They’re both women. I just play the woman. The challenge is actually for the audiences to flip from one to the other.”

The play is based on award-winning Irish writer Colm Toibin’s novella, which became a Tony Award-nominated Broadway play and is frequently restaged around the word.

Pamela Rabe | John AppleyardThe Testament of Mary examines themes such as women’s roles in history being rewritten to suit dogma and dealing with the aftermath of trauma. It has found a resonance with current issues including “fake news” and religious extremism.

“This is not the depiction of a saint, this is the depiction of a human being, a mother whose son has died,” Rabe said.

“We know so little about her, and the little that is known is only from some very meagre, meagre words in the New Testament in the Bible.”

The in-demand actress, coming to the play directly from performing in Ibsen’s Ghosts in Sydney, said doing a solo show was “lonely” and she was “descending into a world of grieving mothers”.

“What I love about this piece of writing that Colm Toibin has created (is) it’s very interrogative, an imaginative exploration which invites everyone to have their own individual response to the kind of trigger that he presents,” she said. (more…)

Continue ReadingWentworth’s Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson actress Pamela Rabe stars as Jesus’ mother in solo show
Read more about the article Pamela Rabe on unpicking the knottiness of Ghosts

Pamela Rabe on unpicking the knottiness of Ghosts

Following the success of her Glass Menagerie with Eamon Flack, actor Pamela Rabe reunites with the director to explore the knottiness of Ibsen’s Ghosts. By Harry Windsor.

Pamela Rabe is on the phone, the morning after opening night of the new production of Ibsen’s Ghosts at Belvoir. Without a trace of actorly effusion, she says: “I’m really looking forward to settling it in.”

The show’s previews have afforded the cast, which includes Robert Menzies alongside Rabe, opportunity to tweak the work extensively, a process she likens to “popping grapes”.

Pamela Rabe - The Saturday PaperIt’s a phrase she picked up from director Annabel Arden, the co-founder of British touring theatre Complicité, during rehearsals for The Art of War at the Sydney Theatre Company, where Rabe was a member of the short-lived Actors Company from 2006 to 2009.

“When a thing is starting to congeal and galvanise, suddenly the little moments that you need to attend to become really apparent,” she says. “You learn a lot about the story you’re telling collectively, and the audience is helping you tell that story.”

Ghosts is one of Ibsen’s knottiest works, one “that has no bottom”, according to Rabe. She stars as Mrs Alving, a survivor of violent abuse at the hands of an unfaithful husband, dead for 10 years when the play begins.

We meet the widow drawing up plans for an orphanage with the assistance of the doctrinaire and judgemental Pastor Manders, played by Menzies. Getting the place insured won’t be necessary, he says; it might look like faithlessness. No prizes for guessing what happens next.

(more…)

Continue ReadingPamela Rabe on unpicking the knottiness of Ghosts