Dame Sybil Thorndike

Sybil Thorndike (1882-1976). Actress and manager.

Biography

Sybil Thorndike was born at Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, on Oct. 24, 1882, the eldest of four children of a Church of England canon, the Rev. Arthur, John Webster Thorndike, and the former Agnes Macdonald Bowers. Her earliest aspiration was to be a pianist, and she studied at the Guildhall School of Music. But she broke her wrist, and was advised by her doctor that a concert artist's career was out of the question.

She then entered the Ben Greet Academy of acting and made her first stage appearance, in a bit part, at Oxtord on June 18, 1904. For the next four years she toured with the Ben Greet Players in the United States and Canada, playing roles in English classic comedy and Shakespeare. The actress made her London debut on Feb. 8, 1908. On Christmas Day of the same year she was married to Lewis Casson, who was actor‐manager with Annie E. F. Horniman's stock company at the Gaiety Theater in Manchester. The marriage was to last almost 61 years, and the Louple had four children. Sir Lewis, who was also a producer and director, and who often performed opposite his wife, died in 1969.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

It appears Thorndike visited South Africa twice. During these visits she became interested in and expressed support for the activities of the Johannesburg Repertory Society and the Bantu Dramatic Society.

1928/1929

In 1928-1929, she toured South Africa. A number of plays are included in the tour repertoire and it is unclear which were actually performed on the tour. One source includes these productions: in Jane Clegg, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, Saint Joan, and as Mrs. Phelps in The Silver Cord. In her obituary in the New York Times, it states that "In a single year, for example, she toured South Africa with a repertory that included not only the Shaw masterwork [Saint Joan], but also Portia in “The Merchant of Venice, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Emilia in Othello and Mrs. Alving in Ibsen's Ghosts.

It is also unclear whether only Saint Joan or the entire tour was presented under the auspices of African Consolidated Theatres.

While in South Africa, she directed a Jewish Guild production of The Sisters' Tragedy in 1929.

1956

In 1956, she toured South Africa, North and South Rhodesia, Kenya, Israel and Turkey with her husband. They were brought out to South Africa by Brian Brooke for a series of drama and poetry recitals, inter alia playing for a black audience at the Bantu Men's Social Centre.