Robyn Nevin

Robyn Anne Nevin (25 September 1942) is an Australian actress recognised with the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards and the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards for her outstanding contributions to Australian theatre performance art. Former head of both the Queensland Theatre Company and the Sydney Theatre Company, she has directed more than 30 productions and acted in more than 80 plays, collaborating with internationally renowned artists, including Richard Wherrett, Simon Phillips, Geoffrey Rush, Julie Andrews, Aubrey Mellor, Jennifer Flowers, Cate Blanchett and Lee Lewis.

Nevin is also known for her roles in films and televisions series, including Water Under the Bridge (1980) as Shasta, role that earned her a Logie Awards and a Penguin Award, Upper Middle Bogan (2014) and Top of the Lake (2014), and international film acting as Councillor Dillard in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions (both 2003), and as Edna in the horror film Relic (2020).

Early life Nevin was born on 25 September 1942 in Melbourne, to Josephine Pauline Casey and William George Nevin. She was educated at Genazzano Convent until the age of 11, when she moved with her family to Hobart, Tasmania, and was enrolled at the Fahan School, a non-denominational school for girls. While there, she played the lead in the school's production of Snow White at the Theatre Royal. Her parents were conservative and conventional, her father the managing director of Dunlop Australia, her mother a housewife, so to enter the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the age of 16 in the very first intake in 1959 was a brave step, in which she was fully supported by her parents.

Career At the outset of her career, she had a variety of roles in radio and television, working mainly at the Australian Broadcasting Commission, including current affairs, music, chat shows and children's shows throughout the early 1960s. With the Old Tote Theatre Company she acted in The Legend of King O'Malley by Bob Ellis and Michael Boddy in 1970. She gravitated back to theatre, where she has been a constant presence for the last 40 years.

Although theatre has been her home ground she has also starred in numerous Australian films and mini-series, landing many credits for strong supporting roles. She made one foray into directing in The More Things Change... (1986).

In 1996 she became artistic director of the Queensland Theatre Company, a position which she held with great success, rescuing the company from bankruptcy and leaving it flourishing in 1999, when she took over the position of artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, where she was artistic director until the end of 2007, having created such memorable additions as The Actor's Company, the only professional repertory company in the nation, and the hugely successful Wharf Revue.

In 2006 she established The STC Actors Company and directed its debut production of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. Her other extensive directing credits for Sydney Theatre Company include: Boy Gets Girl (2005), Summer Rain (2005), Scenes from a Separation (2004), Hedda Gabler (2004), Harbour (2004), The Real Thing (2003), A Doll's House (2002) and Hanging Man (2002).

Other directing credits include After the Ball, Honour, Summer Rain and A Month in the Country (Queensland Theatre Company); Kid Stakes, Scenes from a Separation, Summer of the Seventeenth Doll and On Top of the World (Melbourne Theatre Company); The Removalists (State Theatre of South Australia) and The Marriage of Figaro (State Opera of South Australia).

Nevin has performed in a range of roles at the Sydney Theatre Company, beginning in 1979 as Miss Docker in A Cheery Soul by Patrick White (reprised in 2001); and also including as Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac in 1981; as Ranyevskaya in The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov in 2005; and as Mrs Venable in Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams in 2015.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Type1973LibidoSister Caroline (segment ‘The Priest’)Feature filmReflectionsFilm short1975Something OtherFilm short1976CaddieBlack EyeFeature filmDr. KFilm shortConnieFeature film1978Jenny DoolanFeature filmMarxFilm shortThe Clown and the Mind ReaderFilm short1979Temperament UnsuitedAnneFilm short1980Tread SoftlyClaireFilm short1981Letting GoFilm short1982Fighting BackMaryFeature film1983Goodbye ParadiseKateFeature filmCareful, He Might Hear YouLilaFeature film1984Robyn LukasFeature film1988Emerald CityKate RogersFeature film1992ResistanceWileyFeature filmGreenkeepingMumFeature film1994Lucky BreakAnne-Marie LePineFeature film1995Angel BabyDr. NorbergFeature film1997Supreme Court JudgeFeature film2003Councillor DillardFeature film Bad EggsEleanor PoulgrainFeature filmCouncillor DillardFeature film 2011LalFeature film2013Carol Lang Feature film (segment ‘Reunion’)2015Ruben GuthrieSusan GuthrieFeature film2016Gods of EgyptSharifaFeature film2018Death in BloomMrs. PattersonFilm short2020Groundhog NightRoseFilm short 2020 Relic Edna Feature film2022LacerateJeanneFilm short2023The Appleton Ladies' Potato RaceJoan BunyanFeature film2024StingGunter2026Fing!Chief Librarian

Television {| class="wikitable sortable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- |1961 |The Outcasts | |TV series |- |1962 |Consider Your Verdict |Judith Harper |TV series, 1 episode: "Queen Versus Glandon" |- |1967 |Bellbird | |TV series |- |1971 |The Comedy Game |Kate Sullivan |TV series, 1 episode: "Our Man in Canberra" |- |rowspan=4|1973 |Our Man in the Company |Miss Healey |TV series, 1 episode: "Let Women Go Free" |- |The Taming of the Shrew |Barmaid |TV film |- |How Could You Believe Me When I Said I'd Be Your Valet When You Know I've Been a Liar All My Life? | |Teleplay |- |President Wilson in Paris |Mrs. Wilson |Teleplay |- |rowspan=2|1974 |Matlock Police |Sue Palmer |TV series, 1 episode: "Dancing Class" |- |Ryan |Susan Davis |TV series, 1 episode: "Negative Proof" |- |1974; 1975 |Behind the Legend |Guest roles |TV series, 1 episode: "William Bligh" (1974) |- |1975 |Ben Hall | |TV series, 1 episode |- |1975 |Behind the Legend |Guest role |TV series, 1 episode: "ST Gill" |- |1976 |God Knows Why, But It Works |Nurse |Film documentary |- |1977 |Say You Want Me |Interviewing Officer |TV film |- |1978 |Father, Dear Father |Mrs. Webster |TV series, episode 4: "Novel Exercise" |- |1979 |The Oracle | |TV series, 1 episode |- | rowspan="5" |1980 |Notes on a Landscape |Herself |Film documentary |- |Water Under the Bridge | Shasta |TV miniseries, 8 episodes |- |The Sullivans | Rachael Dawson |TV series, 2 episodes

Other appearances {| class="wikitable" |+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes |- |2015 |The Making of 'Ruben Guthrie''' |Herself / Susan Guthrie |Video |- |2012 |Raising the Curtain|Interviewee |TV series |- |2007 |In the Company of Actors|Herself |TV special |- |2003 |Over Easy: On Location With 'Bad Eggs |Herself |Video |- | rowspan="2" |2001 |Burke's Backyard|Guest Celebrity Gardener |TV series, 1 episode |- |Australian Story|Herself |TV series, 1 episode |- | rowspan="4" |1998 |The Edge of the Possible|Narrator (voice) |TV documentary |- |Witness|Herself |TV series, 1 episode |- |Australian Story|Herself |TV series, 1 episode |- |Denise|Guest |TV series, 1 episode |- |1994 |Ernie and Denise|Guest |TV series, 1 episode |- |1994 |Rites of Passage|Narrator |TV documentary

Theatre and musical

Sydney Theatre Company and other Sydney Theatre Company is an Australian theatre company based in Sydney, New South Wales, which performs at The Wharf Theatre, the Roslyn Packer Theatre and the Sydney Opera House. Nevin was associate artistic director from 1984 to 1987, and first artistic director from 1999 to 2007, producing twenty plays. She has also acted in twenty-seven productions of the company.

Theatre

Robyn Nevin

Bron en licentie