Pamela Rabe


Pamela Rabe is a Canadian–Australian actress and theatre director. A graduate of the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver, Rabe is best known for her appearances in the Australian films Sirens, Cosi and Paradise Road, and for starring as Joan Ferguson in the television drama series Wentworth.

Early life

Rabe was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1959. The seventh of eight children, she graduated from the Playhouse Acting School in Vancouver. Rabe relocated to Australia in 1983 with Australian director, Roger Hodgman. They were married in 1984.

Career

Theatre

Rabe is a prolific contributor to theatrical life in her adopted country in acting and directing, across a wide range of genres - musicals, comedy and drama. With the works of Shakespeare, Molière, Chekhov, Brecht, Noel Coward, Patrick White and David Mamet forming just a part of her theatrical CV, Rabe has played leading roles on the Australian stage in some of the greatest stage plays of our time. She is a long-standing collaborator with the Sydney Theatre Company and the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was once described by Melbourne theatre critic Alison Croggon as having the sort of presence that "makes shy people swallow hard and lesser mortals involuntarily bow".
Some of her other high-profile acting roles include Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at Belvoir, for which she won a Helpmann Award, Nora Boyle in Patrick White's The Season at Sarsaparilla, for which she won a Green Room Award for Best Actress, Richard III in the Sydney Theatre Company production of The War Of The Roses, which also starred Cate Blanchett as Richard II. and Marquise Isabelle de Merteuil in Les Liaisons Dangereuses alongside Hugo Weaving.
In 2005 she performed a challenging experimental Croatian play called Woman-Bomb. where she inhabited the body and mind of a suicide bomber. Rabe was the sole performer in a production that lasted eight hours.
In 2010 she starred in the Melbourne stage production of David Mamet's play Boston Marriage.
In 2012 Rabe received a Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Musical for her performance in Grey Gardens for The Production Company. In July 2015 she won a second Helpmann Award, this time for Best Female Actor in a Play, for her performance in The Glass Menagerie.
In late 2017 Rabe played the roles of Helene Alving in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts for Sydney's Belvoir St Theatre, Mrs. Higgins in the Julie Andrews directed revival of My Fair Lady, and the role of Mary in Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary, at The Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne. In 2018, Rabe starred in Lucy Kirkwood's play The Children at the Melbourne Theatre Company.
Rabe turned her hand to theatre directing in 2009, and has directed several high-profile plays for Australian theatre companies, including the Australian premiere of In the Next Room , and Elling for the Melbourne Theatre Company. Rabe was nominated for a Green Room Award for best direction on both occasions. In 2012 Rabe was invited to be a member of the guest triumvirate who programmed the Melbourne Theatre Company season for that year.

Film

In 1989, Rabe made her film debut with a minor role in Against the Innocent. Her second role came in 1993 when she was cast in John Duigan's romantic comedy Sirens with Hugh Grant and Sam Neill. Rabe's first leading role was in the 1995 film Vacant Possession. Following this, she appeared in Così with Toni Collette, Lust and Revenge directed by Paul Cox, and Paradise Roadstarring Glenn Close and set during World War II. In 1997, Rabe was cast in the leading role of Hester in The Well , an adaptation of Elizabeth Jolley's novel The Well, for which she received an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress. More recently, she appeared in the Jasmila Žbanić film For Those Who Can Tell No Tales and narrated the film Symphony of the Wild.

Television

Rabe's Australian television credits include an early guest role on the soap opera A Country Practice, recurring roles on the family series Ocean Girl and The Secret Life of Us, and a lead role in the short lived series Mercury.
In September 2013, it was announced that Rabe would join the cast of the Australian prison drama series Wentworth, a reimagining of the classic Network Ten soap opera Prisoner. She joined Wentworth in Season Two as sadistic prison governor Joan "The Freak" Ferguson, a role originally played by Maggie Kirkpatrick in Prisoner. Rabe has been nominated for multiple awards for her performance, winning the 2015 AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama and the 2018 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress.
In 2017, Rabe played the role of Maude in the 6-part TV series Fucking Adelaide, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2017.

Other work

Rabe served on the board of the Australian Film Institute from 1999-2002 and is a former member of the Board of Directors of NIDA.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

YearFormatAssociationCategoryNominated workResult
1988TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Leading Role Gertrude Stein and a Companion
1991TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Featured Role The Wizard of Oz
1993TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Leading Role Lost in Yonkers
1997TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Featured Role A Little Night Music
1997FilmAACTA AwardsBest Performance by an Actress in a Leading RoleThe Well
1997FilmStockholm International Film FestivalBest ActressThe Well
1998FilmFilm Critics Circle of Australia AwardsBest Actor - FemaleThe Well
2002TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a MusicalThe Wizard of Oz
2002TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Featured Role The Wizard of Oz
2005TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a PlayDinner
2007TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a PlayMother Courage and Her Children
2008TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Performer - Theatre The Season At Sarsaparilla
2009TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a PlayWar of the Roses
2011TheatreGreen Room AwardDirector - Theatre In the Next Room
2011TheatreGreen Room AwardFemale Actor in a Leading Role Grey Gardens
2012TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a MusicalGrey Gardens
2012TheatreGreen Room AwardDirector - Theatre Elling
2015TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a PlayThe Glass Menagerie
2015TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a Supporting Role in a PlayBeckett Triptych Footfalls
2015TelevisionAstra AwardMost Outstanding Performance by an Actor - FemaleWentworth
2015TelevisionAACTA AwardsBest Lead Actress in a Television DramaWentworth
2016TelevisionLogie AwardsMost Outstanding ActressWentworth
2016TelevisionAACTA AwardsBest Lead Actress in a Television DramaWentworth
2017TelevisionAACTA AwardsBest Lead Actress in a Television DramaWentworth
2018TelevisionLogie AwardsMost Outstanding ActressWentworth
2018TheatreHelpmann AwardBest Female Actor in a PlayThe Children