Marda Vanne

(1897-1970) Stage name for Martha van Hulsteyn. Actress and director. Nicknamed "Scrappy".

Biography

Born in Pretoria as Martha van Hulsteyn, to Sir Willem and Lady van Hulsteyn. she studied acting with Elsie Fogarty at the Central School of Dramatic Art in London.

She was famously, though briefly, married to future Nationalist Prime Minister J.G. Strijdom (the "Lion of the North"), some years before he entered politics. In 1918, after a period as actress in South Africa, she left South Africa to work in England, only returning , now calling herself Marda Vanne, in 1940.

In London, she formed a professional and personal partnership with actress Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies that lasted until her death in 1970.

She and Gwen worked in South Africa during the war years (1940-1946), after which they returned to England. She gained British Citizenship in 1965, though she continued to visit and be involved in South African theatre for many years.

She died 29th April 1970 in England.

Her career and contribution to South African Theatre

First phase: South Africa, 1914-1918

She originally joined Leonard Rayne's company in 1914, performing at the Standard Theatre, Johannesburg under her own name of Martha van Hulsteyn). She appeared in a number of plays, inter alia A White Man, Kismet, The Royal Divorce, two new plays by Stephen Black (Helena's Hope, Ltd. and Van Kalabas Does His Bit) in February 1917, and Milestones in 1918. They also played at the Opera House, Cape Town on occasion.

Second phase: England, 1919-1939

In 1918 she left South Africa for England, where she adopted the stage name of Marda Vanne and went on to attain success in London.

Her first appearance was in If at the Ambassador's Theatre on 30 May 1921. She also appeared in New York's Empire Theatre in Easy Virtue.

Third phase: South Africa, 1940-1946

She returned to South Africa in 1940 and became a director of the resuscitated Pretoria Repertory Theatre. In 1942 she and Gwen ffrangçon-Davies formed a company which toured extensively in South Africa with classical and modern plays during the 1940s. She later returned on occasion and became involved in the establishment of the National Theatre Organisation (N.T.O.), being appointed to the first board in 1948 and doing occasional plays for them. Among her more celebrated South African productions as actress are Watch on the Rhine (194*), Flare Path (194*), What Every Woman Knows (194*), Blithe Spirit (1944), Milestones (194*), The Wind of Heaven (194*), A Month in the Country (194*), Twelfth Night, Gwen ffrangcon-Davies, 1940/41.

Partner with Gwen Ffrangçon in the Gwen ffrangçon-Davies / Marda Vanne Company. Presented seasons of plays during the war years at the Standard Theatre. Produced Watch on the Rhine by Lilian Hellman in 1943 at the Standard. Starred in Blithe Spirit in 1944 with Gwen Ffrangçon-Davies, Margaret Inglis and Siegfried Mynhardt. Staged The Merry Wives of Windsor together with Gwen Ffrangçon-Davies in 1945, starring Wensley Pithey as Falstaff. Presented and starred in Emlyn Williams' The Wind of Heaven in 1946. Also starred Zoe Randall, Wensley Pithey and Sid James. Starred in Turgenev's A Month in the Country in 1946 together with Gwen Ffrangçon-Davies, which was their last production before they went back to England.

Fourth phase: England and South Africa, 1946-1970

In this period she still did the occasional theatrical work in London, her final appearance being in Man and Superman (1965), but most of her theatrical work was done in South Africa, while her London career seems to have been more in television work and the occasional film .

(For more on her work in England, including her stage, film and TV profile, see http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889219/).

She kept close ties with theatre in South Africa and was appointed artistic advisor of the National Theatre in 1950. Both she and Gwen from time to time visited to work in the country and both became members of the NTO Board of Control in later years.

South African productions in this period include:

As director: Die Wewenaar se Vrou Volksteater, Pretoria, 1949), Shaw’s Candida for the National Theatre in 1950.

As actress: Guy Butler’s The Dam (NTO, 1952); N.C. Hunter's Waters of the Moon (NTO, 1953); Eugene O'Neill’s A Touch of the Poet (NTO1961). Waters of the Moon (???* 1953)and Eugene O'Neill’s A Touch of the Poet (NTO, 1961), her last South African appearance.

[TH, JH]

Sources

Hartnoll, 19**;

Du Toit, 1988;

Tucker, 1997

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marda_Vanne

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0889219/

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