# Lyndel Rowe

Lyndel Rowe is an Australian actress of stage, television and film, who is best known for her work with the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Sydney Theatre Company and the State Theatre Company of South Australia, and for her role as Karen Fox/Hamilton in the television soap opera Sons and Daughters.

## Career
### 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".

## Awards

| Year | Work | Award | Category | Result |
| 1976 | Tandarra | Logie Award | Best Individual Performance by an Actress | Won |
| | | Television Society Award | | Won |

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1985 | Short Changed | Councillor | Feature film |
| 1986 | Playing Beattie Bow | Kathy Kirk | Feature film |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Type |
| 1961 | Quiet Night | | TV movie |
| 1962 | Light Me a Lucifer | Barbara Harmon | Teleplay |
| 1964 | Consider Your Verdict | Helen Humphries | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1965 | Compact | Margaret | TV series UK, 1 episode |
| 1966 | BBC Play of the Month | Jessie / Letta | TV series UK, 2 episodes |
| 1967 | Australian Playhouse | | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1967 | Hey You! | Sharlene | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1968–1976 | Homicide | Patty Bourke / Doreen / Carol Gould / Vicki Kramer (as Lyndall Rowe) | TV series, 4 episodes |
| 1968 | Shadow on the Wall | Lin Tan | Teleplay |
| 1969 | The Cheerful Cuckold | Shirley | Teleplay |
| 1969 | The Torrents | J.G. Milford | Teleplay |
| 1969–1973 | Division 4 | Jenny Armstrong / June / Norma Miles / Lorraine Hudson | TV series, 4 episodes |
| 1970 | The Juggler | | Teleplay |
| 1970 | Delta | Jenny | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1971; 1976 | Matlock Police | Judy Morrow / Carol Price | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1971 | Z-Cars | Jenny Swainson | TV series UK, 2 episodes |
| 1971 | Kate | Joyce Moore | TV series UK, 1 episode |
| 1971 | Father and Sons | Fenichka | TV miniseries UK, 4 episodes |
| 1974 | Moving On | Anne | TV movie |
| 1974 | Silent Number | Sharon | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1975 | The Last of the Australians | Maria Agostini | TV series, season 2 , episode 12: "The Stone Final Utter Bloody End" |
| 1976 | Tandarra | Lizzy | TV series, 1 episode |
| 1976 | Solo One | Louise Duncan (as Lyn Rowe) | TV series, episode 12: "The Bike" |
| 1978 | Cop Shop | Jessie Turner | TV series, 2 episodes |
| 1979 | Banana Bender | Maureen | TV movie |
| 1981 | The Gentle Touch | Staff Nurse | TV series UK, 1 episode |
| 1984–1985 | Sons and Daughters | Karen Fox/Hamilton | TV series, 73 episodes |
| 1985 | I Can't Get Started | Valerie | TV movie |
| 1987 | Melba | Blanche Marchesi | TV miniseries, 6 episodes |
| 1988 | Touch the Sun: Princess Kate | Anne McLelland | TV movie |
| 2003 | Blue Heelers | Miss Stamford (as Lyndal Rowe) | TV series, 1 episode |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1958 | The Crucible | | Melbourne Little Theatre |
| 1959 | Moby Dick—Rehearsed | Assistant Stage Manager | Elizabethan Theatre, Sydney, University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1959 | The Waltz of the Toreadors | Pamela | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1959 | Arms and the Man | Louka | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1959 | The Party | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1959 | Venus Observed | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1959 | The Rape of the Belt | Diasta | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1959 | The Ghost Train | Peggy Murdock | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1959–1960 | Sweeney Todd | The lady in tights | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1960 | Prisoners' Country | Aboriginal woman | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company (also Assistant Stage Manager) |
| 1960 | The Entertainer | Assistant Stage Manager | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1960 | Look Who's Here! | Assistant Stage Manager | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1962 | The Season at Sarsaparilla | Judy Pogson | University of Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1963 | The No Hopers | | Australian regional tour with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1963 | Goodnight Mrs. Puffin | Jacqueline Fordyce | Comedy Theatre, Melbourne with J. C. Williamson's |
| | Painting on Wood | | International Theatre Company of The Seventh Seal |
| 1966 | The Rehearsal | Lucile | Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope |
| 1966 | Little Brother, Little Sister | Madam | Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope |
| 1966 | A Pretty Row of Pretty Ribbons | The Young Girl | Little Theatre Club, London with Theatrescope |
| 1966 | The Knack | Nancy | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1967 | A Flea in Her Ear | Raymonde | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre with Melbourne Theatre Company |
| 1967 | The Servant of Two Masters | Clarice | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1967 | Moby Dick—Rehearsed | Pip | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1967 | O | | La Mama, Melbourne |
| 1967 | The Heiress | Marian Almond | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1967 | Just Before the Honeymoon | | La Mama, Melbourne |
| 1967 | Rhinoceros | | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1967 | Death of a Salesman | | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with Union Theatre Repertory Company |
| 1968 | The Crucible | Mary Warren | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre, Tasmania with MTC |
| 1968 | The Magistrate | Charlotte | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre, Mildura Arts Centre, Broken Hill, The King's Theatre, Mt Gambier, Adelaide Teachers College Theatre with MTC |
| 1968 | The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie | Sandy | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1968 | Three Sisters | Irina | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1968 | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg | Sheila | Theatre Royal, Hobart, The Little Theatre, Launceston, Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1969 | The Country Wife | Margery Pinchwife | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne, Canberra Theatre with MTC |
| 1970 | You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown | Lucy | Playbox Theatre, Sydney with Harry M. Miller |
| 1970 | Face of a Man | | Majestic Cinemas, Sydney |
| 1972 | The Taming of the Shrew | Katherina | Parade Theatre, Sydney with Old Tote Theatre Company |
| 1974 | The Importance of Being Earnest | Gwendolyn | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1974 | The Sea | | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1974 | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | Marina | Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1974 | The Misanthrope | Celemene | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1974 | London Assurance | Grace | St Martins Theatre, Melbourne with MTC |
| 1975 | Trelawney of the Wells | Rose Trelawney | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 1976 | Travesties | Gwendolen Carr | Nimrod Theatre, Sydney |
| 1976 | A Handful of Friends | Jill | Playhouse, Adelaide, Russell Street Theatre, Melbourne with South Australian Theatre Company |
| 1976 | Old King Cole | Princess Daphne | Playhouse, Adelaide with South Australian Theatre Company |
| | As You Like It | Phoebe | South Australian Theatre Company |
| 1977 | Doctor in Love | Nikki | Her Majesty's Theatre, Brisbane, Theatre Royal, Sydney, Canberra Theatre, Theatre Royal, Hobart with J. C. Williamson's |
| 1979 | Old Times | Anna | Liverpool Playhouse |
| 1979 | Absent Friends | Diane | Liverpool Playhouse |
| 1979 | A Flea in Her Ear | Raymonde | Liverpool Playhouse |
| | Uncle Vanya | Sonya | Sydney Theatre Company |
| | Tartuffe | Marianne | Sydney Theatre Company |
| 1985 | The Real Thing | Charlotte | Sydney Opera House with STC |
| 2004 | Afterplay | Sonya | Fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne with Stable Productions |