Earwig
Easter
Richard Easton
Eastward Ho!
David Edgar
Educating Rita
Edward II
Edward III
Rob Edwards
Peter Egan
Eh?
Jennifer Ehle
Elective Affinities
Electra
Elgar's Rondo
T.S. Eliot
Michael Elliott
Chris Ellis
Embers
The Empire Builders
Endgame
Enemies
Les enfants du paradis
Susan Engel
Epitaph for the Official Secrets Act
Eric LaRue
Escurial
George Etherege
Euripides
Daniel Evans
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Everyman
Every Man in His Humour
Everything in the Garden
Exiles
Expeditions
Susan Engel read French and Drama at Bristol University before training for the stage in Bristol and Paris (under Henri Rollan). She went from the Bristol Old Vic School into the Old Vic Company (1959).
She was first at the RSC from 1962 to 65. Although still in her twenties, she possessed the character actor's ability to play different ages and styles: a lady in As You Like It (Michael Elliott, Aldwych, 1962); Ludovica in The Caucasian Chalk Circle (William Gaskill, Aldwych, 1962); Constance in Curtmantle (Stuart Burge, UK Tour and Aldwych, 1962, RST, 1962); Ninon in The Devils (Peter Wood, UK Tour and Aldwych, 1962, RST, 1962); Juno in The Tempest (Clifford Williams, RST, 1963); Calphurnia in Julius Caesar (John Blatchley, RST, 1963); a Courtezan in The Comedy Errors (Williams, RST, 1963); Queen Elizabeth in The Wars of the Roses (Peter Hall with John Barton, RST, 1963, Aldwych and RST, 1964); Doll Tearsheet to Hugh Griffith's Falstaff in Henry IV Part 2 (Hall/Barton/Williams, RST, 1964); Adriana in The Comedy of Errors (Williams, RST, 1965); and Manda in Brecht's Squire Puntila and His Servant Matti (Michel Saint-Denis, Aldwych, 1965).
She did not return to the RSC until the late 1980s, but has maintained a distinguished, if occasional, association in the years since: Constance in King John (Deborah Warner, TOP, 1988, Pit, 1989); Frade in The Dybbuk (Katie Mitchell, Pit, 1992); Agnes in Robert Holman's Bad Weather (Steven Pimlott, TOP, 1998, Pit, 1999); Margaret in Nick Stafford's Luminosity (Gemma Bodinetz) and Stella in Epitaph for the Official Secrets Act (Simon Reade, Pit, 2001); a chillingly grave mother to Ralph Fiennes's Brand (Adrian Noble, Swan and Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2003); and the Widow in Women Beware Women (Laurence Boswell, Swan, 2006). At the National, and elsewhere, she has been just as formidable: Watch on the Rhine (Mike Ockrent, NT Lyttelton, 1980); Kate in Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs (Michael Rudman, NT Aldwych, 1986); The Good Person of Sichuan (Warner, NT Olivier, 1989); Goneril in King Lear (Warner) and Queen Margaret in Richard III (Richard Eyre, NT Lyttelton, 1990); Meg in Brian Phelan's Himself (Paul Unwin, Richmond, 1993); Hannah Pitt and Ethel Rosenburg in Angels in America (Declan Donnellan, NT Cottesloe, 1993); the mother in Beckett's Footfalls (Warner, Garrick, 1994); Mrs Heidelberg in The Clandestine Marriage (Nigel Hawthorne, Queen's, 1994-95); Sybil Birling in An Inspector Calls (Stephen Daldry, Garrick, 1995); Sarah in Sebastian Barry's Prayers of Sherkin (John Dove, Old Vic, 1997); Mrs Rafi in Edward Bond's The Sea (Sean Holmes, Minerva, Chichester, 2000); the dean in Rebecca Gilman's Spinning into Butter (Dominic Cooke, Royal Court Theatre Upstairs, 2001); Marie in After the Gods (Gemma Bodinetz, Hampstead Theatre, 2002); and Mrs Moore in A Passage to India (Nancy Meckler, Shared Experience, Tour, 2002, Riverside Studios, 2003).
Screen credits: Charlie Bubbles (Albert Finney, 1968); Inspector Clouseau (1968); Peter Brook's King Lear (1970), as Regan; Butley (Harold Pinter, 1974); Hopscotch (1980); Ascendancy (1982); Damage (Louis Malle, 1993); Inspector Morse (ITV, 1997); The Vice (ITV, 1999); Kavanagh QC (ITV, 1999); Trial and Retribution 5 (ITV, 2001); and Midsomer Murders (2004).
Education: Talbot Heath School, Bournemouth; Sorbonne, Paris; Bristol University; Bristol Old Vic Theatre School
RSC: Joined 1962; Associate Artist, 1962-65
Seasons: 1962 (Lond./Strat.); 1963 (Strat.); 1964 (Strat.); 1965 (Strat./Lond.); 1988 (Strat.)-89 (Lond.); 1992 (Lond.); 1997/98 (Strat.)-98/99 (Lond.); 2001 (Lond.); 2003 (Strat./Lond.); 2006 (Strat.)
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