Dame Janet Suzman
Janet Suzman: Encounters in the World of Theater and Film
Summary
South African–born Dame Janet Suzman, for whom acting is the most meaningful way to break down barriers, discusses her celebrated and acclaimed life on the stage.
Dame Janet Suzman
Janet Guzman, DBE, is a South African/British actress who enjoyed a successful early career in the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). She has always kept strong links with the country of her birth, South Africa, where she began her directing career with a production of Othello with John Kani, seen as a protest play, in 1987 at the Market Theatre. Her films include Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Draughtsman’s Contract (1982), and A Dry White Season (1989). Her television series include Clayhanger (1976), Lord Mountbatten: The Viceroy (1986), and The Singing Detective (1986). Janet was made a Dame in 2011. She has honorary doctorates from among others, Cape Town, Warwick, and London (QMW) Universities.
Trudy Gold
Trudy Gold was the CEO of the London Jewish Cultural Centre and a founding member of the British delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Throughout her career she taught modern Jewish history at schools, universities, and to adult groups and ran seminars on Holocaust education in the UK, Eastern Europe, and China. She also led Jewish educational tours all over the world. Trudy was the educational director of the student resources “Understanding the Holocaust” and “Holocaust Explained” and the author of The Timechart History of Jewish Civilization.
I think these days very much, which makes me not want to do drama at all. There is a mental fragility to political correctness that is very concerning. It means that people don’t want to be shocked or surprised by things other than themselves and I find that really horrifying.
There’s something changed in the way people use the English language, its often debased, simplified, and tedious. Complications are the only interesting thing in life. The undertow or subtext of things makes acting wonderful. I’m drawn to understanding and communicating what is underneath what people mean.