Lewis Fiander - Biography
Beginning his stage career while at school, Lewis first appeared for the Union Theatre repertory Company (precursor of the MTC) in 1959 in Jean Anouilh's Waltz of the Toreadors, performing in that season's ensemble in Venus Observed, Sweeney Todd and Moby Dick - Rehearsed. He subsequently joined the Elizabethan Theatre Trust in Sydney for Ah Wilderness, A Taste of Honey, The Hostage and The Glass Menagerie. Moving to London in the early sixties to appear in The One Day of the Year, he subsequently performed in plays and musicals for the HM Tennent Organisation, joined the first season of the National Theatre Company, and worked for Birmingham Repertory, the Bristol Old Vic and the Oxford Playhouse where, among other lead roles, he played the title role in Peer Gynt. In London's West End, he starred as John Adams in the musical 1776, Disraelli in the musical I and Albert, Noel Coward in Noel and Gertie and Jack Rover in Wild Oats for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Lewis returned to Australia to reprise his role in 1776, and followed it up with Same Time Next Year, Aren't We All, and as Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady. His other credits include The Browning Version, A Woman in Black, Rumours, Phantom of the Opera, Sweet Charity, Ruddigore, and the star studded concert version of Sondheim's Follies as part of the Melbourne Festival.
More recently for MTC, Lewis has played Elyot in Private Lives, Bernard in Arcadia and Histangua in A Flea in Her Ear. He has achieved notable success with his adaptation and solo performance of James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. His most recent productions include A Return to the Brink for Playbox and the Melbourne Festival, and Two Shanks, The Funniest Man in the World and Mysteries for Keene Taylor. He also appeared in God Only Knows at the Marian Street Theatre Sydney.
Among the most notable of Lewis's many television appearances in Britain and Australia is Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice and Casimir Dudevant in Notorious Woman. His unique association with the Australian Pops/Philharmonic Orchestra has involved him as writer, compere, singer and director. He has received two Green Room Awards.
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Photo : Octave Hall Pty Ltd |
