Petrina Fry
FRY, Petrina. English-born actress and director.
Contents
Biography
She was the daughter of the London theatrical manager and director Reginald Fry and ***
She was married to Brian Brooke. Their son Michael Brooke also went into the business.
She was not related to Margaret Fry, but they had met when Petrina was Margaret's understudy in Someone at the Door in London in 1934.
Youth
Training
Career
in 1949 to star in in a season of productions for ACT at His Majesty’s Theatre, starting with Present Laughter (directed by John Roberts).
Worked in repertory in England with Brian, then they came to South Africa in 1946, settling in Cape Town. She performed in a vast range of plays over the years for their company, the Brian Brooke Company. They moved to Johannesburg in 1955 to open and run the Brooke Theatre.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
Roles include No Room at the Inn (1949), The Heiress (1949), The Deep Blue Sea (1955), Harvey (1969). Also directed some plays, including Terence Frisby’s There’s a Girl in My Soup (1967) and Roar Like a Dove (1969). Together with Brian she starred in Harvey, directed by Rex Garner at the Brooke Theatre later that same year.**.
Awards, etc
Sources
Brooke 1978.
Tucker, 1997. 45-6, 80, 225, 250.
For more information
See also Brian Brooke above and the Brian Brooke Company, Section 3.
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