Frances Barber

Infobox actor


imagesize = 150px
name = Frances Barber
birthname =
birthdate = Birth date and age|1958|5|13|df=yes
location = Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England
spouse =
partner =
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yearsactive =
occupation = stage actress, screen actress

Frances Barber (born on 13 May 1958 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England) is an English actress with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also worked extensively in BBC, Granada and ITV television drama.

Career

With the Pet Shop Boys, she starred in their musical "Closer to Heaven" in 2001 as well as guest singer for the song "Friendly Fire" on their 2006 live concert at the Mermaid Theatre. She also appeared alongside Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in the Old Vic's pantomime production of "Aladdin" over the 2005-6 Christmas season.

Barber also guest starred in the Spring 2007 season of the BBCs "Hustle".

She again starred with Ian McKellen in 2007 playing Goneril in Trevor Nunn's production of "King Lear" and as Arkadina in Chekhov's "The Seagull" with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon followed by a world tour throughout the year. [http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/news/RSCdoublepress.htm] .

They again performed the two plays in repertory at the New London Theatre on Drury Lane, [http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/RSCseagullPF-rev.htm] [http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/RSClearPF-rev.htm] opening in November 2007 and closing mid-January 2008.

She reprised her role as Goneril in the 2008 TV film of King Lear.

Theatre career

*"Ooh La La" (Hull Truck Theatre, 1979)
*"Riff Raff Rules" (Theatre Royal, Stratford East)
*"Space Ache" (Tricycle Theatre, Wakefield, 1980)
*Emilia in "Othello" (Oxford Playhouse)
*"La Guerra" ("The Battle"), "Desperado Corner" and "Madame Louise" (Glasgow Citizens', 1980, and Venice Biennale Festival, 1981)
*"The Treat" (Institute of Contemporary Arts)
*"The Mission" (Soho Poly)
*"Hard Feelings" (Oxford Playhouse and The Bush, 1983) [http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/productions/hard_feelings.html]
*"Turning Over" (The Bush, 1983) [http://www.bushtheatre.co.uk/productions/turning_over.html]
*Marguerite in "Camille" (Royal Shakespeare Company, The Other Place, 1984, and Comedy Theatre, 1985 - Olivier nomination for Most Promising Newcomer)
*Ophelia in "Hamlet" (RSC Barbican Theatre, 1985)
*"Love's Labours Lost" (RSC The Other Place, Comedy Theatre, 1985)
*"The Dead Monkey" (RSC The Pit, 1986))
*"Summer and Smoke" (Haymarket Theatre)
*Viola in "Twelfth Night" (Renaissance, Riverside Studios, 1987)
*Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth" (Royal Exchange, Manchester, 1988)
*"My Heart's a Suitcase" (Royal Court, 1990)
*"Over a Barrel" (Watford Palace Theatre)
*"Imagine Drowning" (Hampstead Theatre, 1991)
*Maxine Faulk in "The Night of the Iguana" (National Theatre, 1992)
*Eliza Doolittle in "Pygmalion" (National Theatre, 1992)
*"Insignificance" (Donmar Warehouse, 1995)
*"Uncle Vanya" (Minerva Theatre, Chichester and Albery Theatre, 1996 - TMA Award)
*"Closer" (Lyric Theatre, National Theatre West End transfer, 1998)
*"Closer to Heaven" (Arts Theatre,2001)
*Valerie in "Tales from the Vienna Woods" (National Theatre, 2003)
*Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Gielgud Theatre, 2004)
*Dim Sum in "Aladdin" (Old Vic pantomime, 2005)
*The Narrator in Shane Cullinan's "The Pieta" St Paul's, Covent Garden, 2006)
*Cleopatra in "Antony and Cleopatra" (Shakespeare's Globe, London, 2006) [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/13153/antony-and-cleopatra]
*Arkadina in "The Seagull" and Goneril in "King Lear" (RSC, The Courtyard Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, and New London Theatre, 2007)

elect filmography

*"King Lear" (2008)
*"The IT Crowd" (2005) (TV)
*"Funland" (2005) (TV)
*"Evilenko" (2004)
*"Boudica" (2003)
*"Monkey Dust" (2003) (TV) (voice)
*"Manchild" (2002) (TV)
*"Bremner, Bird and Fortune" (1999) (TV)
*"Still Crazy" (1998)
*"Murder Most Horrid" (1998)
*"A Royal Scandal" (1996) (TV)
*"Space Precinct" (1995) (TV)
*"The Leaving of Liverpool" (1992)
*"Red Dwarf" - "Polymorph" (1989) (TV)
*"Behaving Badly" (1989) (TV)
*"Prick Up Your Ears" (1987)
*"Sammy and Rosie Get Laid" (1987)
*"Castaway" (1986)
*"A Zed & Two Noughts" (1985)

External links

*imdb name|id=0053384|name=Frances Barber