Stratford artistic director Antoni Cimolino said Henry's tour-de-force farewell speaks to "the grit, dedication and craft" that fuelled her legendary stage career. The festival said the show was filmed and it hopes to secure the rights to share it publicly. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Peter Smith, *MANDATORY CREDIT*Įven as her health deteriorated, Henry never let the audience in on the parallels between her character and her personal struggles, commanding the stage through her last performance on Oct. Martha Henry is seen as Lady Percy in Henry IV (Henry IV, Part 1), in a 1965 handout photo. I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement. When shows resumed this summer, Henry used a walker throughout rehearsal and early performances, but about a month into the run in September, she moved into a wheelchair. She received her cancer diagnosis not long before the pandemic shuttered the 2020 Stratford production, the festival said. Henry upheld this devotion to her craft in her final role as an old woman facing her mortality in Edward Albee's "Three Tall Women." For Jamie Portman (Canwest) CNS-STRATFORD-TROJAN Martha Henry as Hecuba, with members of the company Photo: David Hou. And you felt it at every moment watching her," said Dale, who performed alongside Henry in a 1986 production of "Pal Joey" at Toronto's Tarragon Theatre. "Every cell in her being, in her body, was alive and in the character.
Dale said Henry threw herself into every performance with the force of an "earthquake," embodying the character's full physicality. Her acting repertoire ran the gamut from Shakespeare to David Mamet. She also served as director of the festival's Birmingham Conservatory from 2007 to 2016, and mentored the next generation of artists as the director of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction from 2017 to 2020.
Martha Henry in “Three Tall Women” at the 2021 Stratford Festival. In her 47 seasons at the Stratford Festival, Henry performed in more than 70 productions and directed 14 more. "She is the great Canadian actress, Martha Henry." "It's everybody's loss that didn't get to see her," said Cynthia Dale, a fellow actor and friend. Over more than a half century in the spotlight, Henry was revered as the leading lady of Canadian theatre whose transcendent performances and artistic stewardship helped solidify the Stratford Festival's success into its seventh decade. Martha Henry in 1999, when she directed King Lear at the Manitoba Theatre Centre.
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