Newspaper Article

Obituary: Zena Walker ; Actress gifted with a sensual presence

Strachan, Alan

2003

Overview

Remarkably speedily, [Zena Walker] was playing leading roles at the Memorial Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in the era of Glen Byam Shaw (her first mentor). Impressing with a Miranda of grave, questing grace to Ralph Richardson's Prospero in Michael Benthall's nacreous production of The Tempest (1952). Wisely Stratford held on to this unexpected new talent, bringing her back the following season for a feisty Juliet. Back in London, this searing display led only to offers of supporting roles in glossy West End productions, including an uneasy revival of Anouilh's Waltz of the Toreadors (Haymarket, 1974) and a footling part in a glumly plodding C.P. Snow adaptation, The Case in Question (Haymarket, 1975). Another revival, Separate Tables (Apollo, 1976) starring an unlikely pairing of John Mills and Jill Bennett, had a fine, understated performance from Walker as the manageress of the hotel in which both plays of Rattigan's double- bill take place. She understood instinctively Rattigan's oblique handling of emotion and her outwardly brisk, no-nonsense manner did not fail to suggest the tornado-strength feelings beneath, but it was hardly a stretch of her talent. Peter Nichols again provided one of Walker's best opportunities when she played in the West End production of his play of adultery with alter- egos, Passion Play (Wyndham's 1981) directed with a sharp eye for its acerbic comedy by Mike Ockrent. She also seized on the chances offered in a revival of Noel Coward's Easy Virtue (Garrick, 1988) playing a respectable dragon-matriarch facing the prospect of a scandalous, cosmopolitan daughter- in-law; in Walker's hands the character became a wonderfully rich and blissfully funny study of outraged English snobbery and repression.

• Publisher: Independent Digital News & Media
• Subject: Benthall, Michael / Clements, John / Walker, Zena