Marda Vanne

London

Margaretha took Marda Vanne as a stage name in 1918 when she headed to London. Vanne moved to London to build on her acting career and studied speech training and drama under Elsie Fogerty at the Central School of Speech and Drama, then based at the Royal Albert Hall, London. After graduating she met director Basil Dean who recognised her talent and she had a successful career in the West End. She also performed on Broadway in Noël Coward's Easy Virtue (1925), directed by Dean, and Many Waters (1929) by Monckton Hoffe.

Vanne became a good friend of Alec Waugh, the brother of Evelyn Waugh. Alec noted in one of his books that Marda tended to be cast in supporting roles. He suggested that it was because she "lacked sex appeal on stage. ... She lacked lightness. She did not look embraceable. I pictured her in more emotional roles, as a mature woman." He wrote that although she had several affairs with men, her main interest was women.

South African company

In London, Vanne formed a professional and personal partnership with the actress Dame Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies that lasted until her death in 1970. The couple founded a theatre company in South Africa, at the outbreak of World War II, when most of the London theatres were dark. They toured the provinces, including appearances at the Hoffmeyer Theatre in Cape Town. There they performed their production of Twelfth Night in which Marda played Maria and Gwen played Olivia. They also produced and acted in the play Quality Street by James Barrie. Vanne appeared as Madame Arcati in a production of Blithe Spirit in Johannesburg, by Horace Hodges and T. Wigney Percyval called Oupa Brompie for the National Theatre Organisation (NTO) of South Africa.

They produced The Dam by South African writer Guy Butler in 1952, which the author criticised for portraying the Coloured (mixed-race) characters as caricatures.

Death

Vanne gained British Citizenship in 1965. The Constant Wife (1927) by W. Somerset Maugham The Desperate Lovers (1927) by Alfred Sutro – Lady Eulalie Havers The Happy Husband (1927) by Harrison Owen – Stella Tolhurst Home Chat (1927) by Noël Coward – Mavis Wittersham Many Waters (1928) by Monckton Hoffe – Mabel Wingrove, Mabel Barcaldine Two White Arms (1928) by Harold Dearden – Lydia Charrington Cape Forlorn (1930) For Services Rendered (1932) by W. Somerset Maugham – Gwen Cedar Pleasure Cruise (1932) by Austen Allen – Judy Mills At 8 a.m. (1935) by Jan Fabricius Parnell (1936) by Elsie T. Schauffler – Mrs Benjamin Wood The King of Nowhere (1937) by James Bridie Lovers' Meeting (1937) by Leonard Ide The Provoked Wife (1937) – Lady Fanciful The Flashing Stream (1938) by Charles Morgan – Lady Helston Madmoiselle (1941) (in Afrikaans) with Siegfried Mynhardt Six Characters in Search of an Author (1954) by Luigi Pirandello Morning's at Seven (1956) Man and Superman (1965)

Filmography

Strange Boarders (1938) – Mrs. Greatorex Joanna (1968)

Television

The Great Adventure (1939) Passion, Poison and Petrifaction (1939) Prelude to Glory (1954) Vanity Fair (1956–57) BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (1957) Peace and Quiet (1957) Our Mutual Friend (1958) Dark Possession (1959) The Eustace Diamonds (1959) Knight Errant Limited (1960) Somerset Maugham Hour (1960) The First Gentleman (1961) Emergency-Ward 10 (1964) Theatre 625 (1965) Out of the Unknown (1965) Broome Stages (1966) Middlemarch (1968) BBC Play of the Month (1970)

Radio

The Words Upon the Window Pane (1937) by William Butler Yeats

Personal life

Although she married a man early in life and had other relationships with men, her longest relationship was with a woman.