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Pamela Rabe talks about embarking on a 'bold new experiment' and one of the hardest roles in theatre.
Pamela Rabe is in rehearsal. This is not unusual: Rabe is one of Australia's most respected actors, who is rarely out of work. Today she is immersed in rehearsals for the Sydney Theatre Company's production of one of the 20th-century's greatest plays, Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.
What perhaps is remarkable is that, given Rabe's experience and commanding stage presence, she has been cast as one of the minor characters in Chekhov's play. It is the role of Carlotta, the Ranyevskaya family's strange, idiosyncratic governess, a character almost peripheral to the play's action - although with Chekhov one knows this cannot be the case. Where Chekhov is concerned, everything - and everyone - counts.
© The Sydney Morning Herald.