Monica Maughan
Encyclopedia
Monica Maughan was an Australian actor with notable and well-known roles in film, theatre, radio and television.
to Australian missionaries Rev. Dr A. Harold Wood
and medical Dr Olive Wood (née O'Reilly). She was an older sister of Rev. Dr H. D'Arcy Wood
.
The family moved to Sydney in 1937 – Monica was 3.5 and spoke no English – and shortly afterwards to Melbourne, Australia. Monica attended Methodist Ladies' College
– where she received her only formal drama training with speech teacher Dorothy Dwyer – and went on to study French at the University of Melbourne
, graduating in 1959.
Monica was a member of the Melbourne University Dramatic Club where she adopted the stage name Maughan. She made her stage debut opposite Barry Humphries
in Ben Hecht
's fast-paced satire The Front Page in April 1954. While studying part-time, she worked as a secretary at St Ive's Hospital in Melbourne. In 1960 she worked as a speech teacher at Methodist Ladies' College.
's romantic comedy Ring Round the Moon at the Union Theatre, Parkville. Her first leading role came that same year in Beauty and the Beast. UTRC, Australia's first professional theatre company, became the Melbourne Theatre Company
(MTC) in 1968. Monica Maughan appeared in more plays for that flagship company than any other actor. She also directed plays for the MTC. Her last MTC performance was in the premiere production of David Williamson
's Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot in 2008.
Cast in J.C. Williamson productions in the early 1960s, Maughan spent 1963–66 working in the UK, where she appeared in various West End productions – including stepping in for Moira Lister
when the latter was sick – on BBC
TV and with the Wales Theatre Company and Traverse Theatre Company, Edinburgh.
Maughan appeared in at least 7 plays in her first year back in Australia, most of them lead roles, and throughout the late sixties was hailed for some especially fine stage performances, such at the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), directed by MTC founder, John Sumner. In 1971, Maughan won the Melbourne Theatre Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of pregnant spinster Anna Bowers in Donald Howarth's Three Months Gone. Coincidentally, Maughan was three months pregnant at the end of the play's run.
She worked for every major theatre company in Australia, including Chekhov
's The Cherry Orchard and Alan Bennett
's Habeas Corpus for the Queensland Theatre Company in 1978, and the role of Aggie in A Hard God produced by the State Theatre Company of South Australia
and Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
by Sydney Theatre Company
, both in 1981. In Melbourne, in addition to UTRC/MTC and J.C. Williamson's, Maughan worked for Playbox/Malthouse Theatre, the Arts Theatre, Richmond, the Young Elizabethan Players, St Martin's Theatre Company, fortyfivedownstairs and La Mama
.
Perhaps Maughan's best-known stage role was as Miss Prism in the MTC's "The Importance of Being Earnest
". The production, co-starring Frank Thring
, Ruth Cracknell
and Geoffrey Rush
, was so popular that it toured Australia between 1988 and 1992, and was televised by the ABC
. A tribute-cum-revival production is being staged by MTC in 2011.
In 1999 she created the role of Suzanne Beckett in Justin Fleming
's "Burnt Piano" at Belvoir Company B, and demonstrated a fine command of classical piano played live in each performance. In 2003 she starred in Inheritance
by Hannie Rayson
.
Early television roles in Crawford's dramas led to ongoing television parts that made Maughan a recognisable face around Australia, including prim secretary Jean Ford in the first year of The Box (1974–75) and downtrodden prisoner Pat O'Connell for five months in women's-prison drama Prisoner
in 1979–80. Working extensively with ABC
TV and radio over nearly 50 years, Maughan received an AFI Award and a Silver Logie Award
for her role as Monica McHugh in the ABC's black comedy mini-series, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh
(1994).
Monica Maughan extended her repertoire to include non-dancing roles with the Australian Ballet, including Effie's mother in La Sylphide
(2005) and Doreen's mother in The Sentimental Bloke
(2002).
Her 20 or so feature films include A City's Child (1971), Strange Bedfellows
(2004), Crackerjack (2002) and Road to Nhill
(1997), plus a number of films by Dutch-Australian director Paul Cox
. Her last film role was in Blessed
, directed by Ana Kokkinos
, in 2009, described by 3RRR film critic Brian MacFarlane as Maughan's best ever.
She did not live to play the title role in Belvoir Company B's Gwen in Purgatory in 2010, written for her by Tommy Murphy and directed by Neil Armfield
.
Her legacy is an immense body of work of breath-taking range spanning more than half a century.
In January 1968, she married Melbourne solicitor Rowland Ball. They had three daughters, Ruth, Susannah and Olivia Ball.
Early life and education
She was born Monica Cresswell Wood in TongaTonga
Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga , is a state and an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean, comprising 176 islands scattered over of ocean in the South Pacific...
to Australian missionaries Rev. Dr A. Harold Wood
A. Harold Wood
Rev. Dr A. Harold Wood OBE was a 20th-century Australian churchman, educator, writer, hymnologist and advocate of church union.Born Alfred Harold Wood in Geelong on 4 May 1896, the son of Salvation Army officers, Wood was educated in Sydney...
and medical Dr Olive Wood (née O'Reilly). She was an older sister of Rev. Dr H. D'Arcy Wood
H. D'Arcy Wood
Reverend Dr Harold D'Arcy Wood is a semi-retired Uniting Church in Australia Minister and was President of the UCA Assembly between 1991-94. He has been active in ecumenism in Australia and globally....
.
The family moved to Sydney in 1937 – Monica was 3.5 and spoke no English – and shortly afterwards to Melbourne, Australia. Monica attended Methodist Ladies' College
Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne
Methodist Ladies' College is an independent, non-selective, day and boarding school for girls, located in Kew, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia...
– where she received her only formal drama training with speech teacher Dorothy Dwyer – and went on to study French at the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
, graduating in 1959.
Monica was a member of the Melbourne University Dramatic Club where she adopted the stage name Maughan. She made her stage debut opposite Barry Humphries
Barry Humphries
John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...
in Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
's fast-paced satire The Front Page in April 1954. While studying part-time, she worked as a secretary at St Ive's Hospital in Melbourne. In 1960 she worked as a speech teacher at Methodist Ladies' College.
Acting career
Monica Maughan launched her professional career with the Union Theatre Repertory Company (UTRC) in 1957 playing Capulat in Jean AnouilhJean Anouilh
Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1943 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal Pétain's...
's romantic comedy Ring Round the Moon at the Union Theatre, Parkville. Her first leading role came that same year in Beauty and the Beast. UTRC, Australia's first professional theatre company, became the Melbourne Theatre Company
Melbourne Theatre Company
The Melbourne Theatre Company is a theatre company based in Melbourne. Founded in 1953, it is the oldest professional theatre company in Australia, and has its own theatre, The MTC Theatre – which houses the 500-seat Sumner Theatre and the 150-seat Lawler Studio – located in Melbourne's Arts...
(MTC) in 1968. Monica Maughan appeared in more plays for that flagship company than any other actor. She also directed plays for the MTC. Her last MTC performance was in the premiere production of David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
's Scarlett O'Hara at the Crimson Parrot in 2008.
Cast in J.C. Williamson productions in the early 1960s, Maughan spent 1963–66 working in the UK, where she appeared in various West End productions – including stepping in for Moira Lister
Moira Lister
Moira Lister de Gachassin-Lafite, Vicomtesse d’Orthez was an Anglo-South African film, stage and television actress, and writer.-Early life:...
when the latter was sick – on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV and with the Wales Theatre Company and Traverse Theatre Company, Edinburgh.
Maughan appeared in at least 7 plays in her first year back in Australia, most of them lead roles, and throughout the late sixties was hailed for some especially fine stage performances, such at the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1968), directed by MTC founder, John Sumner. In 1971, Maughan won the Melbourne Theatre Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of pregnant spinster Anna Bowers in Donald Howarth's Three Months Gone. Coincidentally, Maughan was three months pregnant at the end of the play's run.
She worked for every major theatre company in Australia, including Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Cherry Orchard and Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
's Habeas Corpus for the Queensland Theatre Company in 1978, and the role of Aggie in A Hard God produced by the State Theatre Company of South Australia
State Theatre Company of South Australia
The State Theatre Company of South Australia is South Australia's leading professional theatre company. It is based in the Dunstan Playhouse at the Adelaide Festival Centre. The current artistic director is Adam Cook...
and Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955...
by Sydney Theatre Company
Sydney Theatre Company
The Sydney Theatre Company is one of Australia's best-known theatre companies operating from The Wharf Theatre near The Rocks area of Sydney, as well as the Sydney Theatre and the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre....
, both in 1981. In Melbourne, in addition to UTRC/MTC and J.C. Williamson's, Maughan worked for Playbox/Malthouse Theatre, the Arts Theatre, Richmond, the Young Elizabethan Players, St Martin's Theatre Company, fortyfivedownstairs and La Mama
La Mama Theatre (Melbourne)
The La Mama Theatre is a theatrical venue located at 205 Faraday St, Carlton, Victoria. It opened in a former factory building on 30 July 1967 and still operates today under the direction of Liz Jones....
.
Perhaps Maughan's best-known stage role was as Miss Prism in the MTC's "The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
". The production, co-starring Frank Thring
Frank Thring
Frank William Thring was an Australian character actor.-Early life:Thring was born in Melbourne and educated at the Melbourne Grammar School. His father, Frank W. Thring, was the head of Efftee Studios, in Melbourne, in the 1920s, and is said to be the inventor of the clapperboard...
, Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell
Ruth Cracknell AM was an Australian theatre and television character actress who appeared in many comedy roles. She was known variously as "Crackers", "Dame Crackers" and "Dame Ruth" throughout a career spanning 56 years....
and Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
, was so popular that it toured Australia between 1988 and 1992, and was televised by the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. A tribute-cum-revival production is being staged by MTC in 2011.
In 1999 she created the role of Suzanne Beckett in Justin Fleming
Justin Fleming
Justin Fleming , born Sydney, Australia is a playwright and author. He has written for theatre, music theatre, television and cinema and his works have been produced and published in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, Belgium, Poland and France...
's "Burnt Piano" at Belvoir Company B, and demonstrated a fine command of classical piano played live in each performance. In 2003 she starred in Inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
by Hannie Rayson
Hannie Rayson
-Biography:Rayson was born in Melbourne, Victoria and graduated from the University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of Arts. She has worked as a freelance journalist and editor in addition to her primary career as playwright and screenwriter. Rayson was the co-founder of the community...
.
Early television roles in Crawford's dramas led to ongoing television parts that made Maughan a recognisable face around Australia, including prim secretary Jean Ford in the first year of The Box (1974–75) and downtrodden prisoner Pat O'Connell for five months in women's-prison drama Prisoner
Prisoner (TV series)
Prisoner is an Australian television soap opera which was set in the Wentworth Detention Centre, a fictional women's prison. The series was produced by the Reg Grundy Organisation and ran on Network Ten for 692 episodes from 27 February 1979 to 11 December 1986.The series was inspired by the 1970s...
in 1979–80. Working extensively with ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
TV and radio over nearly 50 years, Maughan received an AFI Award and a Silver Logie Award
Logie Award
The TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
for her role as Monica McHugh in the ABC's black comedy mini-series, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh
The Damnation of Harvey McHugh
The Damnation of Harvey McHugh is a television miniseries made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The series consists of 12 episodes and was first broadcast on the ABC in 1994.-Cast and crew:...
(1994).
Monica Maughan extended her repertoire to include non-dancing roles with the Australian Ballet, including Effie's mother in La Sylphide
La Sylphide
La Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
(2005) and Doreen's mother in The Sentimental Bloke
The Sentimental Bloke
The Sentimental Bloke is an Australian silent film based on the 1915 poem The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke by C.J. Dennis.The film, from the Southern Cross Feature Film Company of Adelaide, was made by Raymond Longford and Lottie Lyell, at that time the best known partnership in Australian cinema...
(2002).
Her 20 or so feature films include A City's Child (1971), Strange Bedfellows
Strange Bedfellows (2004 film)
Strange Bedfellows is a 2004 Australian film starring Paul Hogan and Michael Caton as heterosexual men who pass themselves off as a homosexual couple in order to get financial benefits from the government...
(2004), Crackerjack (2002) and Road to Nhill
Road to Nhill
Road to Nhill is a 1997 Australian comedy-drama film directed by Sue Brooks. The film won the "Golden Alexander" for Best Feature-Length Film at The International Thessaloniki Film Festival .-Plot:...
(1997), plus a number of films by Dutch-Australian director Paul Cox
Paul Cox
Paulus Henriqus Benedictus "Paul" Cox is an award-winning Australian film director.Cox was born in Venlo, Limburg, the Netherlands, the son of Else , a native of Germany, and Wim Cox, a documentary film producer. Cox emigrated to Australia in 1965...
. Her last film role was in Blessed
Blessed (2009 film)
Blessed is a 2009 drama film. It was released in Australia on 10 September 2009. It stars Miranda Otto and Frances O'Connor. It is a film adaptation of the play Who's Afraid of the Working Class?....
, directed by Ana Kokkinos
Ana Kokkinos
Ana Kokkinos is an Australian film director. Kokkinos was born in Melbourne and prior to her career in film, she worked as an industrial lawyer...
, in 2009, described by 3RRR film critic Brian MacFarlane as Maughan's best ever.
She did not live to play the title role in Belvoir Company B's Gwen in Purgatory in 2010, written for her by Tommy Murphy and directed by Neil Armfield
Neil Armfield
Neil Geoffrey Armfield AO is an Australian director of theatre, film and opera.Born in Sydney, Armfield was the youngest of three boys. The son of a factory worker at the nearby Arnott's biscuit factory he was brought up in the suburb of Concord adjacent to Exile Bay...
.
Her legacy is an immense body of work of breath-taking range spanning more than half a century.
Awards
- Erik Kuttner Award for Acting (1968) for the title role in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (MTC)
- Erik Kuttner Award for Best Actress (1971) as Anna Bowers in Three Months Gone (MTC)
- AFI Award (Hoyts Prize) for Best Performance (1971) for the lead role in A City’s Child (dir. Brian Kavanagh)
- Green Room Award for Best Supporting Actress (1983) as Mollie in Gulls (MTC)
- Television Society of Australia Commendation for performance by an Actress in a supporting role in a mini-series (1985) for her role in Flying Doctors (Crawford's)
- Green Room Award for Best Supporting Actress (1987) as Mme Arcati in Blithe Spirit (MTC)
- Green Room Award for Best Supporting Actress (1990) as Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest (MTC)
- Silver Logie AwardLogie AwardThe TV Week Logie Awards are the Australian television industry awards, which have been presented annually since 1959. Renamed by Graham Kennedy in 1960 after he won the first 'Star Of The Year' award, the name 'Logie' awards honours John Logie Baird, a Scotsman who invented the television as a...
Most Outstanding Actress (1995) as Monica McHugh in The Damnation of Harvey McHugh (ABC)
- AFI Award for Best Actress in a TV Drama (1995) as Monica McHugh in The Damnation of Harvey McHugh (ABC)
- Green Room Award for Best Actress (1998) for her role in Tear from a Glass Eye (Playbox)
- Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress (2008) as the teacher Mrs Walkham in The Toy Symphony (Belvoir St Company B)
Age
Maughan was always coy about her age and many sources gave her year of birth as 1938. When celebrating 50 years of professional acting in 2007, Maughan said she was "20 or 21" on her first acting tour in 1954 and admitted she "always lied about my age".Personal life
Maughan married Brian Essex, then a medical student, in December 1954 with her father officiating.In January 1968, she married Melbourne solicitor Rowland Ball. They had three daughters, Ruth, Susannah and Olivia Ball.
Death
Maughan died of complications from cancer at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne on 8 January 2010.External links
- Monica Maughan – Stage acting credits
- "The Importance of Being Earnest" – (information and photos):
- http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_event_id=1549 , http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_event_id=12571 , http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_event_id=12850 , http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_event_id=14306 , http://www.ausstage.edu.au/indexdrilldown.jsp?xcid=59&f_event_id=13283 , http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104490/ , http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23386505 , http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an23386438