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Janet Suzman

JANET SUZMAN  (1939 - )

 Nationality:    South African
email:    n/a     Website:    n/a

Literary Agent:    n/a


Janet Suzman was born in Johannesburg, graduated from the University of Witwatersrand, trained at LAMDA, and joined the RSC for its inaugural season, the Wars of the Roses in 1962, where she stayed on and off for a decade playing many of the heroines and culminating in a memorable Cleopatra. She has since pursued a richly varied career in all manner of performance disciplines; among them The Singing Detective on TV and The Draughtsman's Contract on film. She has twice won The Evening Standard Best Actress Award (Chekhov and Fugard), had Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations (Nicholas and Alexandra), twice won The Liverpool Echo Best Production Award (Miller and Shakespeare), and also the TMA Best Production for her Cherry Orchard. The Johannesburg Othello - so named by Channel Four TV and aired in 1988 - was her directorial debut for The Market Theatre of which she is a founding Patron. She re-wrote and directed Brecht's Good Person of Setzuan to a local South African setting and has written a handbook on Shakespeare's comedies. She was appointed Dame of the British Empire for services to drama in 2011.

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below is a list of Janet Suzman's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

 Free State, The: A South African Response to Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard         Good Woman Of Sharkville, The

Free State, The: A South African Response to Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard

Janet Suzman
This powerful version of Chekhovs famous drama reflects the South African phenomenon of the 1990s. With the hindsight of the new millennium we can look back and see that the miracle did happen. The new order did take over from the old. The fruitless cherry orchard was chopped down. The old men who couldn't move with the times have been left behind and forgotten. Chekhov's great pre-revolutionary drama, dreaming of youthful energy replacing the worn-out inertia of a dying world, lends itself vividly to this new setting in post-revolutionary South Africa.

Notes:
Original Playwright - Anton Chekhov

1st Produced:
Theatre Royal Bath/ tour    2000

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Methuen Drama    978-1849431330

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  5            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Good Woman Of Sharkville, The

Synopsis:
The Gods look for one good person. They find that she is a prostitute. She is given money but this makes her the object of attentions from all kinds of undesirables. She pretends to be her male cousin

Notes:
Original Playwright - Bethold Brecht

1st Produced:
U K tour    1997

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   -

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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