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Siân Thomas

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Siân Thomas
Born (1953-09-20) 20 September 1953 (age 71)
Stratford-upon-Avon
OccupationActor
Known forPlaying Lady Macbeth, audiobooks, BBC's Merlin

Siân Thomas (born 20 September 1953) is a Welsh[1] actress who trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She is known both for her work on stage and for her television appearances. Her voice is known to listeners both for her poetry readings on Radio 3 and for her audiobooks.

Career

Thomas has appeared on stage, on TV and in films such as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in which she played Amelia Bones.

In 2002 she appeared in London's West End theatre production Up for Grabs with Madonna. The critic Michael Billington commented that "Madonna is not positively bad: just technically awkward. But, fortunately, she is buttressed by strong supporting players. Sian Thomas, who can get a laugh simply through the flick of an eyelid, is superb as a Courtauld-trained consultant longing to get her revenge on the corporate world."[2]

In 2004, Thomas played the leading role of Lady Macbeth in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Macbeth at Stratford-on-Avon. Billington wrote that "Sian Thomas was also born to play Lady Macbeth. She has the right mixture of attack, sexiness and emotional drive", adding that she gave Shakespeare's sometimes complex lines exactly the right stress to bring out the subtle antitheses. He noted, too, that she brought out the character's steadily growing "tactical and emotional isolation".[3]

In the musical Spring Awakening in London in 2009, she and Richard Cordery played "all the adult roles with cartoon-like aplomb".[4]

In 2010, Thomas played the leading role of the queen in the National Theatre Wales's production of Aeschylus's The Persians, described by The Guardian as "a tremendous performance as the queen, a woman of fiery splendour reduced to ululating agony as the disasters mount and she cries 'this is the peak of my misery'."[5]

In 2011, she played the leading lady Martha in the Northern Stage and Sheffield theatres co-production of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. The critic Clare Brennan commented that she and the leading man Jasper Britton "seizethe parts for their own", as Thomas's Martha "part praying mantis, part puppet, jerks around the stage as if impelled by forces trying to rip free from her control – despair, grief and rage."[6]

From 2012 she appeared as Atorloppe in the BBC's Merlin series.[7]

Thomas has a particularly effective voice for reading modern poetry, which is often deployed on the BBC Radio 3 programme Words and Music.[8] For the same reason her voice has been employed on several audiobooks including Allison Pearson's I Think I Love You and Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.[9]

Family

Thomas spent part of her childhood living in Canada. She is the sister of the actress Sara Mair-Thomas.[10] Her partner is the British poet Tony Harrison.[11]

References

  1. ^ "The Big Interview:Sian Thomas". Official London Theatre. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  2. ^ Billington, Michael (24 May 2002). "Up For Grabs, Wyndham's Theatre, London". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  3. ^ "RSC Macbeth". The Guardian. 19 March 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  4. ^ Spencer, Charles (4 February 2009). "Spring Awakening at the Lyric, Hammersmith - review". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  5. ^ Billington, Michael (13 August 2010). "The Persians". Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  6. ^ Brennan, Clare (27 March 2011). "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf. Sheffield Crucible". The Observer. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  7. ^ "Merlin: Disir". BBC. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  8. ^ "Nocturne". BBC Radio 3. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  9. ^ "Sian Thomas narrated Audio Books". Simply Audio Books. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  10. ^ Vernon, Sarah (2003). "Archive Interview • SIAN THOMAS • The Price • Apollo Theatre • 2003". Rogues & Vagabonds. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  11. ^ McLean, Craig (11 February 2007). "Dirty Harry". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 11 February 2007.

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