Jessie Evans

Jessie Evans (born Jessie Vera Thomas, 1 August 1918 – 2 March 1983) was a Welsh actress. She was given her first roles by the playwright and actor Emlyn Williams and between 1945 and 1982 she appeared on stage and in broadcasts with performers including Richard Burton, John Gielgud, Edward Hardwicke, Phyllida Law, Peter O'Toole, Eric Porter, Cyril Ritchard and Harry Secombe.

Although she played many serious roles – her own favourite among them being the title role in Berthold Brecht's Mother Courage, she was most often associated with comedy, in which she played in a wide range of roles, including Madame Arcati and later Elvira in Blithe Spirit, Mrs Levi in The Matchmaker, Mrs Bardell in the musical Pickwick, Mrs Malaprop in The Rivals, Mrs Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World. Her most successful role was the Wife of Bath in Canterbury Tales, a musical dramatisation of Chaucer's stories, in which she starred in 1968–1969, 1970–1973 and 1979.

Evans made few cinema films but was a frequent broadcaster on radio and television, including a BBC sitcom series, Lill, in which she starred in the title role.

Life and career

Early years

Jessie Evans was born in Mountain Ash, South Wales on 1 August 1918, the second child of James Thomas – a coal miner – and his wife Ellen Beatrice ( Eynon). She was educated in Swansea and became a hospital nurse before entering the theatrical profession. She saw a press advertisement seeking a Welsh actress and being, as The Stage put it, the most Welsh of women, she applied. The advertiser was the playwright Emlyn Williams, who signed her up for his new play Pen Don, which had an entirely Welsh theme and setting. It opened at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool in December 1943, with Evans in the role of Clog.

From February 1944 Evans toured in the Middle East with Williams's company playing Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit, Dora in Night Must Fall. and Bessie Watty in The Corn is Green. The Stage later commented that this range of contrasting roles showed the versatility that was to become her trademark. He took a company to New York in 1947, and Evans first appeared on Broadway at the Royale in May 1947, as Miss Prue in Love for Love in a cast headed by Gielgud and including Cyril Ritchard, Pamela Brown, Robert Flemyng and Donald Bain – an actor whom Evans married nine years later.

The Stage reported that Evans was acclaimed for her portrayal of Miss Hoyden in The Relapse at the Lyric, Hammersmith in December 1947. and the Phoenix in January, 1948. After this she joined the company of the Bristol Old Vic, playing among other parts, Audrey in As You Like It, and Dorine in Tartuffe, reprising the latter role at the Lyric, Hammersmith in June 1950. heading a cast that also included Jeremy Brett, David Scase, Robert Stephens and Frank Windsor. The Manchester Guardian said that Evans "makes it a memorable evening ... she commands the stage as a saint should, though the smallest person on it, by a controlled force of personality – with substantial aid, of course, from the playwright".

At the Bristol Old Vic in September 1955. Evans played Mrs Levi in The Matchmaker. The cast included Eric Porter, Alan Dobie, Edward Hardwicke, Phyllida Law and, in a tiny role the young Peter O'Toole, but The Stage declared Evans "The star of the evening [who] bursts on to the stage with all the magnificence and bravado of supremely confident I womanhood, and sorts out the tangled love affairs with superb ease". At the New in May 1956 Evans played Sidonie in Peter Hall's production of Gigi. The production transferred to the Piccadilly Theatre in March 1962, and Evans won a Clarence Derwent Award for her performance.

Although her own favourite among her parts was the title role in Berthold Brecht's Mother Courage, she was particularly associated with comedy, and in March 1968 she played the Wife of Bath in Canterbury Tales, a musical dramatisation of Chaucer's stories, with the fourteenth-century text modernised by Nevill Coghill. The Stage called this "her greatest triumph". She made her final stage appearance at the Duke of York's Theatre in its Dylan Thomas Memorial on St David's Day, 1982.

Radio and television

Evans made few cinema films but loved radio and television. Her radio roles ranged from Bessie in The Corn is Green (with Richard Burton, 1945) and Gwen in Dick Barton, Special Agent (1949) to Marie Lloyd in Trottie True (1955) and Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield (1974).

Death Evans died in a hospice in Canterbury at the age of 64. A commemorative service was held in St Paul's, Covent Garden – known as "the actors' church" – the following month.