# Susan Lyons

Susan Lyons (born 1958, Sydney) is an Australian actress.

## Career
### Film and television

Lyons' television appearances include: A Country Practice, Police Rescue, Murder Call, Farscape, Something in the Air and All Saints.
Her film appearances include: The Good Wife, No Worries, In a Savage Land, Black and White, Corroboree, Martin Four and Napoleon.
Lyons starred in the 1998 Australian Christmas film Crackers, playing single mother Hilary who hates Christmas.

### Theatre

Lyons has also appeared extensively in stage productions for many of the major theatre companies in Australia, including Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, State Theatre Company of South Australia and Bell Shakespeare. She has appeared in such titles as Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, The Vagina Monologues, The Beggar’s Opera, As You Like It, Pygmalion, Measure for Measure and Two Weeks with the Queen.
Her most recent credits includes work as an associate director on the 2003 Broadway production of I Am My Own Wife directed by Moisés Kaufman which was also staged in Melbourne in 2006. She also adapted a version of A Christmas Carol, which has been staged on Broadway and throughout the US from 2018 onward.
She has also narrated the audio book version of Incendiary, by Chris Cleave.

## Personal life

Lyons is married to Tony Award-winning theatre and film actor Jefferson Mays. They first met in 2002 when Lyons saw Mays perform in a production of Outward Bound at the Westport Country Playhouse, in Connecticut.

## Awards

| Year | With | Award | Category | Result |
| 1993 | Susan Lyons | Marten Bequest Scholarship | Acting | Won |

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1983 | The Winds of Jarrah | Diana Venness | Feature film |
| 1987 | The Umbrella Woman (aka The Good Wife) | Mrs. Fielding | Feature film |
| 1987 | The Riddle of the Stinson | Jean Batten | TV film |
| 1989 | The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro | Ruth | TV film |
| 1990 | Wendy Cracked a Walnut (aka ...Almost) | Caroline | Feature film |
| 1992 | Six Pack: Loveless | Annie | TV film series, 1 episode |
| 1993 | No Worries | Ellen Bell | Feature film |
| 1994 | Ebbtide | Alison | Feature film |
| 1994 | The Roly Poly Man | Sandra Burnett | Feature film |
| 1995 | Napoleon | Penny, Napoleon's Mum / Other Wallaby (voice) | Feature film |
| 1996 | The Territorians | Anne McCabe | TV film |
| 1998 | Halifax f.p.: Afraid of the Dark | Detective Helen de Castro | TV film series, 1 episode |
| 1998 | Crackers | Hilary Dredge | Feature film |
| 1999 | In a Savage Land | Helen Stevens | Feature film |
| 2001 | Martin Four | Grace | Film short |
| 2002 | Black and White | Dr. Thompson (uncredited) | Feature film |
| 2005 | Life | Jean Gregory | TV film |
| 2007 | Corroboree | Verna | Feature film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1982 | For the Term of His Natural Life | Sarah | TV miniseries, 3 episodes |
| 1983; 1989; 1990 | A Country Practice | Sister Sandy Wright / Elizabeth Brown / Linda Freeman | TV series, 10 episodes |
| 1984 | Five Mile Creek | Miss Parling | TV series, season 2, episode 10: "Matchmaker" |
| 1987 | Willing and Abel | | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1988 | Stringer | Laura Chandler | TV series, 8 episodes |
| 1990 | Rafferty's Rules | | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1990 | Come in Spinner | Dallas McIntyre | TV miniseries, 2 episodes |
| 1991; 1993 | Eggshells | Jill Knight | TV series, 13 episodes |
| 1991 | G.P. | | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1992 | E Street | Nancy Plimshaw | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1992 | Six Pack | Annie | TV series, season 1, episode 2: "Loveless" |
| 1995 | Police Rescue | Janet | TV series, season 4, episode 6: "Double Jeopardy" |
| 1996 | Mercury | Nell Roberts | TV miniseries, 13 episodes |
| 1996 | Sun on the Stubble | Ellie Gunther | TV miniseries, 6 episodes |
| 1997 | Fallen Angels | | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1998 | Murder Call | Amanda MacKenzie | TV series, season 2, episode 16: "A View to a Kill" |
| 1998 | Three Forever | Martha Graves | TV miniseries |
| 1999 | Dog's Head Bay | Vicki Santorini | TV series, 13 episodes |
| 2001 | Farscape | Sierjna | TV series, season 3, episode 12: "Meltdown" |
| 2001 | All Saints | Natalie Moyes | TV series, season 4, episode 39: "Child's Play" |
| 2002 | Something in the Air | Sue Smithies | TV series, 5 episodes |
| 2010 | American Experience | Elizabeth Merry | TV series, season 22, episode 4: "Dolley Madison" |

## Theatre
### As actor

| Year | Title | Role | Venue / Co. |
| 1979; 1980 | The Three Sisters | Natalia | Jane Street Theatre, Sydney with NIDA, Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1979 | The Beggar’s Opera | | NIDA Theatre, Sydney, Playhouse, Canberra |
| 1979 | The Ballad of the Sad Café | | NIDA Theatre, Sydney |
| 1980 | The Mystery Plays of Wakefield | | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | The Float | Tina | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | On the Wallaby | Premier Butler / Miss Collins / Happy Valley / Woman | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | | Theatre 62, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | Traitors | | Theatre 62, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | A Month in the Country | Vera | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1980 | Red Light Square | | Theatre 62, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1981 | Buckley's! | Di | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1981 | Pygmalion | Clara Eynsford-Hill | Playhouse, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1981 | As You Like It | Rosalind / Audrey | Theatre 62, Adelaide with STCSA |
| 1982 | Macbeth | | Sydney Opera House with STC |
| 1983 | The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. | Anna | Sydney Opera House with STC |
| 1985 | The Real Thing | Charlotte | SGIO Theatre, Brisbane with Queensland Theatre |
| 1986 | Measure for Measure | | Wharf Theatre, Sydney with STC |
| 1986, 1987 | Aren’t We All? | Margot | His Majesty's Theatre, Perth, Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney |
| 1988 | The Game of Love and Chance | | Wharf Theatre, Sydney with STC |
| 1988 | An Ideal Husband | | Wharf Theatre, Sydney with STC |
| 1989 | A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Titania | Sydney Opera House with STC |
| 1991 | The Merchant of Venice | Portia | Sydney Showground with Bell Shakespeare, Melbourne Athenaeum |
| 1991 | Hamlet | Voltemand / 2nd Player | Melbourne Athenaeum |
| 1991 | South American Barbecue | | Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney with North Coast Theatre Company |
| 1995 | Paradise Lost | | St George's Cathedral, Perth |
| 1995 | Two Weeks with the Queen | | Alexander Theatre, Johannesburg, South African State Theatre, Wharf Theatre, Sydney with STC |
| 1996 | The Queen and I | Princess Diana | Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, Monash University, Her Majesty's Theatre, Adelaide, Gold Coast Arts Centre, Newcastle Civic Theatre with Out of Joint Theatre Company |
| 1997 | The Comedy of Errors | Adriana | Sydney Opera House with STC for Sydney Festival |
| 1996 | Big Hair in America | | The Butter Factory Theatre, Wodonga with HotHouse Theatre |
| 2001 | The Vagina Monologues | | Ensemble Theatre, Sydney |
| 2002 | Night Letters | | Australian National University, Canberra with Australian National Playwrights Conference |
| 2002 | The Eye of the Needle | | Civic Square Canberra with Elbow Theatre |
| 2003 | All My Sleep and Waking | | Australian National University, Canberra with Australian National Playwrights Conference |

### As director

| Year | Title | Role | Venue / Co. |
| 2003–2004; 2006 | I Am My Own Wife | Artistic Consultant / Associate Director | Lyceum Theatre, Broadway, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 2018–2024 | A Christmas Carol | Adaptor | Geffen Playhouse, Los Angeles, South Coast Repertory Theatre, Park Theatre, New Hampshire, Nederlander Theatre, Broadway, Old Globe Theatre, San Diego |