Amanda Root

Infobox actor
name = Amanda Root

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imagesize =200px
caption = Amanda Root
birthname = Amanda Root
birthdate = 1963
birthplace = Chelmsford, Essex, England
occupation = Actress
yearsactive = 1983-present

Amanda Root (born 1963 in Chelmsford, Essex) is an English stage and screen actress.

Ms Root is possibly best known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and the British TV comedy "All About Me", as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004.

She trained for the stage at Webber Douglas.

Career

Amanda Root began her career at the Leeds Playhouse in 1983 where she played Essie in Bernard Shaw's "The Devil's Disciple".

"She was a remarkably complete actress even in her early twenties, when physically she looked little more than a child. With her dark soulful eyes she could command a stage, and the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her talent very early on." [Simon Trowbridge "A Dictionary of the RSC".]

She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford upon Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes' Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne. ["A Dictionary of the Royal Shakespeare Company" by Simon Trowbridge (2003-07) [http://www.stratfordians.org.uk/] ]

In 1995, she starred as Anne Elliot in "Persuasion", co-starring Ciarán Hinds and John Woodvine. The film (made for TV, then released theatrically) was based on the novel by Jane Austen and provided Amanda Root with her first leading role in a film. [Regency World magazine interview with Amanda Root [http://www.janeausten.co.uk/regencyworld/pdf/root.pdf] ]

She won rave reviews in October 2008 for her portrayal of the control freak Sarah in the Old Vic revival of Alan Ayckbourn's interlinked trilogy "The Norman Conquests", directed in the round by Matthew Warchus. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/oct/07/theatre1]

Audio

She was the voice of Sophie in the animated film of Roald Dahl's "The BFG" (1989).

In 2006 Amanda Root undertook the marathon task of recording an unabridged audiobook of Charlotte Brontë's "Jane Eyre". Published by Naxos it has a running time of 20 hours 30 minutes, spread across 17 audio CDs: ISBN 9789626343579.

She had previously recorded an abridged 3-hour reading of Jane Austen's "Persuasion", published by Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks in July 2004: ISBN 184456035X.

In November 2007 for BBC Radio 4 she played in the Woman's Hour Drama serial adaptation of F Tennyson Jesse's novel "A Pin to See the Peep Show" [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0085bhb] , and on 2 December 2007 was heard in Arnold Wesker's 75-minute radio play "The Rocking Horse", commissioned by the BBC World Service to celebrate its 75th anniversary. [http://www.arnoldwesker.com] [The Stage radio review The Rocking Horse [http://www.thestage.co.uk/features/feature.php/19020/radio-review-drama] ]

As part of the BBC Radio 4 "Hopes and Desires" season, she played Lindsey, an incurable romantic who yearns to meet a modern-day Heathcliff, in Nick Warburton's 30 minute comedy "Catching Heathcliff", broadcast at 11pm on 15 January 2008. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00773j8]

Theatre

Her stage credits include:
*Essie in "The Devil's Disciple" (Bernard Shaw), Leeds Playhouse, 1983
*Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" and Hermia in "A Midsummer Night’s Dream", RSC small-scale tour 1983; The Other Place 1984
*Jessica in "The Merchant of Venice", RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 1984
*Moth in "Love's Labours Lost", RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre, 1984
*Lucy Ellison in "Today" by Robert Holman, RSC The Other Place, October 1984; The Pit Barbican, May 1985
*Apricot in "The Dragon’s Tail" by Douglas Watkinson, Apollo Theatre, October 1985
*Neuroza in "Tell Me Honestly" (Kenneth Branagh), Not the RSC Festival, Almeida Theatre 1985
*Adela in "The House of Bernarda Alba" (Lorca, directed by Nuria Espert), Lyric Hammersmith, September 1986; Globe Theatre, January 1987
*Harriet in "The Man of Mode" (George Etherege), RSC Swan Theatre, July 1988; The Pit, April 1989
*Lady Macbeth in "Macbeth", RSC Barbican Theatre, May 1989
*Betty McNeil in "Some Americans Abroad" (Richard Nelson), RSC The Pit, July 1989
*Cordelia in "King Lear", RSC Almeida Theatre. September 1989
*Cressida in "Troilus and Cressida", RSC Swan Theatre, April 1990; The Pit, June 1991
*Rosaline in" Love's Labours Lost" RSC Royal Shakespeare Theatre, September 1990; Barbican Theatre, March 1991
*Nina in "The Seagull" (Chekhov), RSC Swan Theatre; November 1990; Barbican Theatre July 1991
*Cleopatra in "Caesar and Cleopatra" (Shaw),co-starring with Alec McCowen, Greenwich Theatre, February 1992
*The Manageress in "50 Revolutions" (Murray Gold), Oxford Stage Company, Whitehall Theatre, September 1999
*Edith in "Conversations After a Burial" (Yasmina Reza), Almeida Theatre, September 2000
*Polina Bardin in "Enemies" (Maxim Gorky in a version by David Hare), Almeida Theatre, May 2006 [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/12600/enemies]
*Sarah in "The Norman Conquests", an interlinked trilogy by Alan Ayckbourn, Old Vic, October 2008 [http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/21991/the-norman-conquests-table-manners-living]

Films and Television

*"This Lightning Always Strikes Twice" (1985) (TV)
*"The BFG" (1989) - "Sophie" (voice)
*"The House of Bernarda Alba" (1991) (TV) - Adela
*"The Buddha of Suburbia" (1993) (TV) - First TV Producer
*"The Man Who Cried" (1993) (TV) - Hilda Maxwell
*"" (TV)
**"The Taming of the Shrew" (1994) - Kate
*"Love on a Branch Line" (1994) (TV) - Miss Mounsey
*"Persuasion" (1995) - Anne Elliot
*"Deep in the Heart" (1996) - Kate Markham
*"Breaking the Code" (1996) (TV) - Patricia 'Pat' Green
*"Jane Eyre" (1996) - Miss Temple
*"Turning World" (1996) TV)
*"Dangerfield" (TV)
**"Guilt" (1997) - Alice Stratton
*"Sunnyside Farm" (TV series)
**Episode 25 April 1997 (1997) - Dawn
*"Original Sin" (1997) (TV) - Frances Peverell
*"Big Cat" (1998) (TV) - Alice
*"Mortimer's Law" (1998) (TV) - Rachel Mortimer
*"Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?" (1999) - Margaret Robinson
*"Anna Karenina" (2000) (TV) - Dolly
*"A Small Summer Party (2001) (TV) - Karen
*"Holby City" (TV)
**"Snakes and Ladders" (2001) - Abbie Sawyer
*"Daniel Deronda" (2002) (TV) - Mrs. Davilow
*"Waking the Dead" (TV)
**"Special Relationships" (2002) - Lorna Gyles
*"The Forsyte Saga (2002) (TV) - Winifred Dartie née Forsyte
*"Foyle's War" (TV)
**"Fifty Ships" (2003) - Elizabeth Lewes
*"Little Britain" (TV)
**"Most People in a Mini" (2003) - Baby's Mother
*"A Touch of Frost" (TV)
**"Another Life" (2003) - Delores Delmonte
*"Love Again" (BBC television film based on the life of the poet Philip Larkin, 2003) - Maeve Brennan
*"The Forsyte Saga" Series II (2003) (TV) - Winifred Dartie nee Forsyte
*"Midsomer Murders" (TV)
**"A Talent for Life" (2003) - Ruth Scholey
*"Bloom" (2004 short) - Helen Chapman
*"All About Me" (2004) (TV) - Miranda
*"Rose and Maloney" (TV)
**Episode 1/2 (2004) - Marsha Campese
*"London" (2004) (TV) - Charlotte Brontë
*"Julian Fellowes Investigates": A Most Mysterious Murder - "The Case of the Croydon Poisonings" (2005) (TV) - Vera Sidney
*"Empire" (2005) (TV) - Noella
*"The Robinsons" (2005) (TV) - Maggie Robinson
*"The Impressionists" (2006) (TV) - Alice Hoschedé
*"The Afternoon Play" (TV)
**"The Last Will and Testament of Billy Two-Sheds" (2006) - Andrea
*"Brief Encounters" (TV)
**"Lost & Found" (2006) - June Makenzie
*"Agatha Christie's Poirot" (ITV)
**"Mrs McGinty's Dead" (2008) - Mrs Shelagh Rendell

References

*Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

External links

*imdb name|id=0740500|name=Amanda Root