English actress From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Margaret Rawlings, Lady Barlow (5 June 1906 – 19 May 1996) was an English stage actress, born in Osaka, Japan, daughter of the Rev. George William Rawlings and his wife Lilian (née Boddington) Rawlings.
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She was educated at Oxford High School and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She first married Gabriel Toyne (marriage dissolved) and then Sir Robert Barlow (knighted 1943) who pre-deceased her.
Her entries in Who's Who in the Theatre record her private address as 10 Duke Street, Adelphi, London WC2 (1936), Flat 12, 72 Westbourne Terrace, London W2 (1939), then finally Rocketer Farm, Wendover, Buckinghamshire (from 1947 onwards).
She was a co-founder of Equity, serving as a Council member for 30 years and was twice appointed Vice-President, in 1973–74 and 1975–76. [citation needed]
While still at Oxford, Rawlings appeared at the Little Theatre with John Masefield's company. She made her professional debut in March 1927 with The Macdona Players as Jennifer in The Doctor's Dilemma at Croydon, and subsequently also played in The Philanderer, Arms and the Man, You Never Can Tell and The Dark Lady of the Sonnets.
She made her London stage debut on 22 January 1928 with the Venturers company as Louise in Jordan at the Strand Theatre, then toured as Gwen in The Fanatics and as Jill in Chance Acquaintance. In October 1928 at the Embassy Theatre she played Vivian Mason in The Seventh Guest and Moya in The Shadow, before touring with Maurice Colbourne and Barry Jones in Shaw repertory to Canada and the United States in 1929–30.
1930s
Roles included:
Nora Tanner in The Last Chapter, New Theatre May 1930
Minn Lee in the Edgar Wallace thriller On the Spot, Paris 1930
Title role in Oscar Wilde's Salome, Gate Theatre May 1931
Bianco Capello in The Venetian, Masque Theatre, New York debut, 31 October 1931
Ann Whitefield in Man and Superman and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (Bernard Shaw) for the Macdona Players, Cambridge Theatre August 1935
Katherine "Kitty" O'Shea in Parnell (Elsie T Schauffler), Ethel Barrymore Theatre New York November 1935 – 99 performances
Katherine "Kitty" O'Shea in Parnell (which she had partly rewritten to enable the play to be licensed for London performance), Gate Theatre April 1936 (co-starring with Wyndham Goldie in the title role); and New Theatre November 1936
Charmian in Antony and Cleopatra directed by Theodore Komisarjevsky, New Theatre October 1936
Karen Selby in The Flashing Stream (Charles Morgan), Lyric Theatre September 1938; and appeared in the same role at the Biltmore Theatre New York, April 1939
Marceline in The Unquiet Spirit (Jean-Jacques Bernard), Arts Theatre February 1949
Germaine in A Woman in Love (adapted and directed by Michael Redgrave), Embassy Theatre April 1949
1950s
The Countess in The Purple Fig Tree (George Ralli), Piccadilly Theatre February 1950
Lady Macbeth to the Macbeth of Alec Clunes, who also directed, Arts Theatre June 1950
Anna Sergievna in Spring at Marino (Constance Cox) directed by John Fernald, Arts Theatre February 1951
Zabrina in Tamburlaine the Great (Christopher Marlowe) co-starring with Donald Wolfit in the title role and directed by Tyrone Guthrie, Old Vic September 1951
Lysistrata in The Apple Cart (Bernard Shaw) co-starring with Noël Coward as King Magnus, Theatre Royal Haymarket, May 1953
The Countess in The Dark is Light Enough (Christopher Fry directed by Peter Brook, touring Arts Theatre, Salisbury and Windsor 1955
Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Paulina in The Winter's Tale (to Paul Rogers' Falstaff and Leontes), Old Vic 1955–56 season
Title role in Phedre (Jean Racine), Theatre-in-the-Round November 1957 and tour
Empress Eugenie in a solo touring performance, Cambridge Festival July 1978; May Fair Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre February 1979; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre July 1979; and the Dublin Festival, October 1979
