Gabrielle Lomberg
Gabrielle Lomberg (b. Pretoria, 28/11/1959 – d. Cape Town, 23/04/2007) was an actress and cabaret artist. Also credited as Gaby Lomberg and occasionally as Gabi Lomberg.
Biography
Gabrielle (Gaby) Julia Ann Lomberg was born in Pretoria to actress Valda Adams and her diplomat husband, Malcolm Lomberg. Because of her father’s work she received some of her education in Paris, but matriculated at Rustenburg Girls’ High School in Rondebosch and graduated with a degree in speech and drama from the University of Cape Town in 1979 (others in her class were Sean Taylor, Russel Savadier and Richard E. Grant). As a first-year drama student she acted in Mavis Taylor’s production of Candide in 1977 and after graduation she spent some time working with Henry Goodman at the People’s Space. By 1982 she had moved to Johannesburg and performed in a variety of plays at the Market Theatre, the Alexander Theatre and the Civic Theatre, visiting the major centres like Cape Town and Durban on tour.
She also featured in some television programmes and made two, somewhat indifferent films. She regularly appeared on radio and in an adaptation of Mary Renault’s novel The King Must Die (1984) she played both the young Theseus and Ariadne. For Janice Honeyman she appeared in several Christmas pantomimes and in 1993 she took a one-person show entitled Girl on a New Planet to the Standard Bank National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. Later in her career she developed her talents as a cabaret artist, appearing with Kate Normington in Pigs with Attitude (1993) and its sequel, Pigs with Bottoms. As a stand-up comic she appeared in Swopping Comics (1995) at the Johannesburg Civic Theatre and at the Smirnoff Mule Comedy Festival (1997) at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town. In 1996 she was diagnosed with a brain tumour, a condition which rendered her incapable of pursuing her career. She died in Cape Town at the age of 47. Her older sister, Gillian Lomberg, died four years later. (FO)
Sources
SACD 1981/82.
84 Charing Cross Road programme notes in 1982 at the Market Theatre.
Nunsense programme notes, 1988.
Tucker, 1997.
Various entries in the NELM catalogue.
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