Angelique Rockas

Angelique Rockas is a South African-Greek, London-based actress who with her company Internationalist Theatre (initially called New Internationalist Theatre) "asserted " the performance of multi-racial and multi-national theatre productions in the London of the 1980s; this was first announced on 9 April 1981 on the Theatre News page (2) by the editor of The Stage, describing the company's formation "to assert a multi-racial drama policy", with their performance of the revival of The Balcony by Jean Genet. Athol Fugard accepts to be a member of the company's advisory board, and is listed as such on the company's press release for their production of Mother Courage and Her Children by Brecht. Madeleine Jay in her BBC French Service (part of BBC World Service ) broadcast review of The Balcony and interview with Yves Aubert the French actor in the cast asks him "Why An International/Internationalist troupe?".Michelene Wandor in her preview for Time Out of the company's performance of Griselda Gambaro's The Camp (1967 play) describes the company's "internationalist casting policy " as an "exciting risk". Interviews with Rockas in print and online about the founding of Internationalist Theatre were published in Eleftherotypia, The National Herald, Vogue Mexico & Latin America, Dagens Nyheter, the Cape Argus, and The Greek Reporter. As a stage actress, Rockas first came to public attention for her portrayal of the roles of Emma in Griselda Gambaro's The Camp, "encarna magistralmente el dificil papel de Emma", BBC Latin American Service (now BBC Mundo); Tom Vaughan of the Morning Star described her performance as "searing" and of "great power"; Jenny Vaughan of Spare Rib as "stunning" and "electrifying"; as Euripides's Medea, Ned Chaillet, writing for The Times was struck by the wrath of Medea erupting in "the dangerous passions of Angelique Rockas", and Rosemary Say of The Sunday Telegraph lauded Rockas' performance as "fiercely agile"; Camden Scanner declares "Angelique Rockas in the central part gives us a barefoot performance of great power",; in the title role of August Strindberg's Miss Julie her portrayal impresses not only for the "huge dimensions of the character" suggested, but also "Ms Rockas' performance adds profundity and power .. most original performance", Jo Stanley of the Morning Star. On film Rockas is known for her roles in The Witches directed by Nicolas Roeg as Henrietta, as Nereida in Oh Babylon! directed by Costas Ferris and in Peter Hyams's Outland as the Maintenance woman. In Greece she has played the lead role, Ms Ortiki in Thodoros Maragos's television series Emmones Idees(vide video link), with Vangelis Mourikis as Socratis.