Lyndel Rowe

Theatre

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

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

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".

Film

Television