McEwan, Geraldine

McEwan, Geraldine [ Geraldine McKeown] (1932– ), English actress, who first appeared with the repertory company at Windsor, where she was born, and from 1951 to 1956 was seen in and around London in a series of light comedies. In 1957 she gave an interesting performance at the Royal Court as the unhappy and tiresome child Frankie Addams in Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding, and in 1958 she joined the company at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, going with it to Russia and returning to Stratford in 1961 to play Beatrice in Much Ado about Nothing and Ophelia in Hamlet. In complete contrast was her role as the suburban prostitute-wife in Giles Cooper's Everything in the Garden (1962). In the same year she again proved her versatility by taking over the part of Lady Teazle in Sheridan's The School for Scandal, in which she made her New York début a year later, starring there also in Peter Shaffer's double bill The Private Ear and The Public Eye. She then joined the National Theatre company at the Old Vic, where she gave an excellent and spirited performance as Angelica in Congreve's Love for Love (1965). She remained with the company for some years, playing in Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear (1966) with the precision and neatness essential to French farce, in Strindberg's Dance of Death (1967), in Maugham's Home and Beauty (1968), and in Congreve's The Way of the World (1969), in which she was an excellent Millamant. In Webster's The White Devil (also 1969), she radiated flamboyant sexuality. After appearing with the National Theatre company again in 1971 in Giraudoux's Amphitryon 38, she was seen in the West End in Jerome Kilty's Dear Love (1973), in which she played Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Peter Nichols's Chez nous (1974), and a revival of Coward's Look after Lulu (Chichester and London, 1978). She returned to the National Theatre in Rattigan's double bill The Browning Version and Harlequinade, Vanbrugh's The Provok'd Wife (both in 1980), and in 1983 in Sheridan's The Rivals, as Mrs Malaprop. In 1988 she took over from Maggie Smith in Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage. Her highly mannered, clearly articulated mode of speech is ideal for high comedy.