Lyndel Rowe

Lyndel Rowe
NationalityAustralian
OccupationActress
Known forSons and Daughters & theatre roles

Lyndel Rowe is an Australian actress of stage, television and film, who is best known for her work with the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia, and for her role as Karen Fox/Hamilton in the television soap opera Sons and Daughters.

Career

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Theatre

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Rowe joined the Union Repertory Company (now the Melbourne Theatre Company), in productions including Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla, Waltz of the Toreadors, Arms and the Man, Ghost Train and toured Australia with J.C. Williamson's production of Goodnight Mrs. Puffin (by Arthur Lovegrove), alongside Irene Handl.

Travelling to England, she studied at the Royal Court Theatre, with George Devine and Keith Johnstone. She performed in a production of Painting on Wood with the International Theatre Company of The Seventh Seal. From there she moved into repertory and into the company of a West End lunch-time theatre, TheatreScope, doing weekly seasons of one act works by playwrights such as Tennessee Williams, Ionesco and Anouilh.

She later returned to the UK to perform in several productions with the Liverpool Playhouse in 1979 – as Anna in Old Times, Dianne in Absent Friends and Raymonde in A Flea in Her Ear.

Invited back to the Melbourne Theatre Company at Russell Street Theatre, Rowe's roles included Nancy in The Knack, Raymonde in A Flea in her Ear, Irina in Three Sisters, Mary Warren in The Crucible, Margery Pinchwife in The Country Wife, Sheila in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Clarice in The Servant of Two Masters, Marina in Pericles, Pip in Moby Dick, Grace in London Assurance, Charlotte in The Magistrate, Celemene in The Misanthrope and Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Her credits with the Sydney Theatre Company included the roles of Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Rose Trelawney in Trelawney of the Wells, Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Marianne in Tartuffe and Charlotte in The Real Thing.

With the South Australian Theatre Company she played Phoebe in As You Like It, Daphne in Old King Cole, Jill in David Williamson’s A Handful of Friends. At the Playbox, Sydney, she played Lucy in the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. With Nimrod Street Theatre (now Belvoir), she played Gwendolen Carr in Tom Stoppard’s Travesties, and also performed in an Australian tour of Doctor in Love.

In 2004, Rowe appeared with Lewis Fiander in Afterplay under the direction of Malcolm Robertson, a UTRC veteran, at Fortyfivedownstairs, in Flinders Lane Melbourne.

Television

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In Australia, Rowe's earliest appearance was in a television play Quiet Night (1961). Other TV plays included Light Me a Lucifer (1962), Shadow on the Wall (1968), The Cheerful Cuckold (1969) and The Torrents (1969), The Juggler (1970) and Banana Bender (1979). She also featured in the TV movies Moving On (1974) and later, I Can’t Get Started (1985).

She made numerous guest appearances in Australian television series throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including Consider Your Verdict, Homicide, Division 4, Delta, Matlock Police, Silent Number, The Last of the Australians, Solo One and Cop Shop.

In 1976, Rowe starred in the miniseries Tandarra for which she won a Logie Award for her role as Lizzy. Her best-known television role however, was that of Karen Fox (later Hamilton) in the Grundy’s soap opera Sons and Daughters for 73 episodes, from 1984 to 1985. In 1985, she also starred in the feature film Short Changed and the following year, appeared in children's film Playing Beattie Bow based on the novel by Ruth Park.

Rowe played French opera singer Blanche Marchesi in the 1988 biographical miniseries Melba about famed opera soprano Dame Nellie Melba, and Anne McClelland in the 1988 children's TV movie Touch the Sun: Princess Kate, alongside Justine Clarke and Claudia Karvan. She also had a later guest role in long-running police drama series Blue Heelers in 1994.

In the UK, Rowe's earliest role was playing Fenichka in the BBC miniseries of Turgenev's Fathers and Sons (1961). She featured in BBC Play of the Month Death of a Salesman (1966) with Rod Steiger. She also made guest appearances in television soap Compact (1965), as well as episodes of police procedural series Z-Cars (1971) and The Gentle Touch (1981).

Writing

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Rowe has also written novels, short stories and a screenplay. She has had essays published in Australian literally journal "Meanjin", and has been twice chosen for publication in "The Best Australian Essays".

Awards

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Year Work Award Category Result
1976 Tandarra Logie Award Best Individual Performance by an Actress Won
Television Society Award Won

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Type
1985 Short Changed Councillor Feature film
1986 Playing Beattie Bow Kathy Kirk Feature film

Television

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Year Title Role Type
1961 Quiet Night TV movie
1962 Light Me a Lucifer Barbara Harmon Teleplay
1964 Consider Your Verdict Helen Humphries TV series, 1 episode
1965 Compact Margaret TV series UK, 1 episode
1966 BBC Play of the Month Jessie / Letta TV series UK, 2 episodes
1967 Australian Playhouse TV series, 1 episode
1967 Hey You! Sharlene TV series, 1 episode
1968–1976 Homicide Patty Bourke / Doreen / Carol Gould / Vicki Kramer (as Lyndall Rowe) TV series, 4 episodes
1968 Shadow on the Wall Lin Tan Teleplay
1969 The Cheerful Cuckold Shirley Teleplay
1969 The Torrents J.G. Milford Teleplay
1969–1973 Division 4 Jenny Armstrong / June / Norma Miles / Lorraine Hudson TV series, 4 episodes
1970 The Juggler Teleplay
1970 Delta Jenny TV series, 1 episode
1971; 1976 Matlock Police Judy Morrow / Carol Price TV series, 2 episodes
1971 Z-Cars Jenny Swainson TV series UK, 2 episodes
1971 Kate Joyce Moore TV series UK, 1 episode
1971 Father and Sons Fenichka TV miniseries UK, 4 episodes
1974 Moving On Anne TV movie
1974 Silent Number Sharon TV series, 1 episode
1975 The Last of the Australians Maria Agostini TV series, season 2 , episode 12: "The Stone Final Utter Bloody End"
1976 Tandarra Lizzy TV series, 1 episode
1976 Solo One Louise Duncan (as Lyn Rowe) TV series, episode 12: "The Bike"
1978 Cop Shop Jessie Turner TV series, 2 episodes
1979 Banana Bender Maureen TV movie
1981 The Gentle Touch Staff Nurse TV series UK, 1 episode
1984–1985 Sons and Daughters Karen Fox/Hamilton TV series, 73 episodes
1985 I Can't Get Started[1] Valerie TV movie
1987 Melba Blanche Marchesi TV miniseries, 6 episodes
1988 Touch the Sun: Princess Kate Anne McLelland TV movie
2003 Blue Heelers Miss Stamford (as Lyndal Rowe) TV series, 1 episode

Theatre

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Year Title Role Notes
1958 The Crucible Melbourne Little Theatre
1959 Moby Dick—Rehearsed Assistant Stage Manager Elizabethan Theatre, Sydney, University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1959 The Waltz of the Toreadors Pamela University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1959 Arms and the Man Louka University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1959 The Party Assistant Stage Manager University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1959 Venus Observed Assistant Stage Manager University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1959 The Rape of the Belt Diasta University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1959 The Ghost Train Peggy Murdock University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1959–1960 Sweeney Todd The lady in tights University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1960 Prisoners' Country Aboriginal woman University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager)
1960 The Entertainer Assistant Stage Manager University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1960 Look Who's Here! Assistant Stage Manager Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1962 The Season at Sarsaparilla Judy Pogson University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1963 The No Hopers Australian regional tour with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1963 Goodnight Mrs. Puffin Jacqueline Fordyce Comedy Theatre, Melbourne with J. C. Williamson's
Painting on Wood International Theatre Company of The Seventh Seal
1966 The Rehearsal Lucile Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope
1966 Little Brother, Little Sister Madam Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope
1966 A Pretty Row of Pretty Ribbons The Young Girl Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope
1966 The Knack Nancy Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1967 A Flea in Her Ear Raymonde Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre with Melbourne Theatre Company
1967 The Servant of Two Masters Clarice Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1967 Moby Dick—Rehearsed Pip Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1967 O La Mama, Melbourne
1967 The Heiress Marian Almond Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1967 Just Before the Honeymoon La Mama, Melbourne
1967 Rhinoceros Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1967 Death of a Salesman Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company
1968 The Crucible Mary Warren Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre, Tasmania with MTC
1968 The Magistrate Charlotte Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre, Mildura Arts Centre, Broken Hill, The King's Theatre, Mt Gambier, Adelaide Teachers College Theatre with MTC
1968 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Sandy Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1968 Three Sisters Irina Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1968 A Day in the Death of Joe Egg Sheila Theatre Royal, Hobart, The Little Theatre, Launceston, Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1969 The Country Wife Margery Pinchwife Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre with MTC
1970 You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown Lucy Playbox Theatre, Sydney with Harry M. Miller
1970 Face of a Man Majestic Cinemas, Sydney
1972 The Taming of the Shrew Katherina Parade Theatre, Sydney with Old Tote Theatre Company
1974 The Importance of Being Earnest Gwendolyn St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1974 The Sea Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1974 Pericles, Prince of Tyre Marina Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1974 The Misanthrope Celemene St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1974 London Assurance Grace St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC
1975 Trelawney of the Wells Rose Trelawney Sydney Theatre Company
1976 Travesties Gwendolen Carr Nimrod Theatre, Sydney
1976 A Handful of Friends Jill Playhouse, Adelaide, Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with South Australian Theatre Company
1976 Old King Cole Princess Daphne Playhouse, Adelaide with South Australian Theatre Company
As You Like It Phoebe South Australian Theatre Company
1977 Doctor in Love Nikki Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, Theatre Royal, Sydney, Canberra Theatre, Theatre Royal, Hobart with J. C. Williamson's
1979 Old Times Anna Liverpool Playhouse
1979 Absent Friends Diane Liverpool Playhouse
1979 A Flea in Her Ear Raymonde Liverpool Playhouse
Uncle Vanya Sonya Sydney Theatre Company
Tartuffe Marianne Sydney Theatre Company
1985 The Real Thing Charlotte Sydney Opera House with STC
2004 Afterplay Sonya Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne with Stable Productions

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References

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  1. ^ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0746566/ [user-generated source]
  2. ^ "Lyndel Rowe". AusStage.
  3. ^ "Lyndel Rowe". Theatricalia.