Danielle Cormack to Headline for Queensland Theatre

They killed her off in Australian prison drama Wentworth in 2016, but Auckland-born Danielle Cormack will live again on stage for Queensland Theatre next year. Cormack, 46, played Bea Smith in the television series and lasted four seasons until she threw herself onto a screwdriver wielded by co-star Pamela Rabe’s Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson.

The popular star was in Brisbane for Queensland Theatre’s season 2018 launch recently and announced she was taking the lead role in Hedda late next year, a dramatic riff on Henrik Ibsen’s classic Hedda Gabler.

“That has traditionally been one of the great roles for women,” Cormack says. “I couldn’t pass on this one. Be prepared for a spin on the original, because it has been contemporised.”

Cormack won a number of awards for her role as Bea Smith, including two Logies for Most Outstanding Actress in 2015 and 2017.

Original article by Phil Brown, The Courier-Mail, August 21, 2017.

Photo by Liam Kidston.